Actor Anne Hathaway teamed up with The Office star Steve Carell for the 2008 feature Get Smart.
Get Smart was a 2008 comedy feature based on the 1960s series of the same name. The original television show was a parody of secret agent films like the James Bond franchise. Hathaway and Carell’s adaptation would maintain the spirit of the original but with a modern twist. Carell played an inexperienced agent entering the field for the first time being paired with Hathaway’s super spy.
With Hathaway playing the more serious role in the feature, she needed to maintain her composure during her partner’s hilarious antics. The Oscar-winner felt being able to stay serious was one of the reasons she was picked to star alongside Carell.
“It’s almost impossible to keep up with him and match his joke for a joke because he’s a genius at it and even if I were good at it I’m not a genius and I have very little experience doing it and he’s just Steve Carell. I mean it’s what he’s known for. So I don’t ever beat myself up for not being able to match him beat for a beat but in the audition, I was able to keep a straight face as he just went off and was making everyone else crack up, so I think that got me through the door,” she once told Collider.
Hathaway further revealed that many of Carell’s lines in Get Smart were improvised, which Carell was already known for in The Office.
