Why Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig will never host an award show

THEY were the standouts of the Golden Globes, but Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig tell news.com.au why they’d be ‘awful’ award show hosts.

Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig will happily admit they’re each other’s biggest fans. Picture: Mark Davis/Getty Images

BETWEEN them, they’ve been responsible for some of the funniest screen performances of the 21st century — often in the same movie.

From Bridesmaids to The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Saturday Night Live, at this point Steve Carrell and Kristen Wiig are comedy royalty. The pair are also frequent collaborators and will next be seen — or rather, heard — in the third instalment of the family-friendly Despicable Me animated franchise, due in cinemas in June.

With the latest Despicable Me 3 trailer released today, we spoke to the duo to find out what it is they love about working together — and why they’d never dare host an award show despite their scene-stealing spot at this year’s Golden Globes.

Steve and Kristen, you’ve appeared together in so many projects now, can we officially dub you a comedy duo?

Steve: Yes, I would dub us that. We are so dubbed. Dub away. You know what, it would be fine with me to only work with Kristen for the rest of my life. If I had to make a choice like that, it would be Kristen.

Kristen: Oh my god, are you serious? Let’s get it done!

Despicable Me 3 being an animated film though, I’m assuming you recorded your parts separately?

K: Yes. Actually we had it in our contracts that we HAD to record separately. We can’t even go in on the same day. No, we never worked together [on this film], and it’s kind of a bummer.

Steve Carell, not in PJs.

Kristen Wiig records her role in Despicable Me 3.

Is it an easy job being in an animated film? Do you even have to get out of your PJs to go to work?

K: We get dressed up.

S: I LOVE to get dressed up. Because I’m aPRO, so I wear a coat and tie ... I wear a tux to work. No, look, it’s a great job. The great thing is you can just do whatever you want, and if it’s terrible, they just don’t put it in the movie.

K: And you can’t really see the faces of the people behind the glass, so even if they think it was terrible … you can’t really see them thinking it was terrible.

You two stole the show at this year’s Golden Globes with your presenting slot. It seemed a bit of a risk, telling these implausibly sombre childhood stories and hoping people would laugh — were you nervous?

S: I didn’t feel like we were nervous … but you’re right, it was a bit of a risk. You just don’t know until you get that first indication that they’re on your side.

K: Yeah, you’re not performing in a comedy club where the crowd is a little different. You’re always a little nervous when you think about how many people are watching, and you’re performing to a crowd with a lot of nervous people in it too, because of what the night is. We just wanted to try to have fun.

S: When you’re onstage with someone who you trust implicitly, that alleviates a lot of the fear. Having to do it by yourself, I just do not trust myself, ever [laughs]. To be up there with someone you know has your back, that is a very different experience.

The pair’s Golden Globes presenting slot was either hilarious or painful (depending on your tolerance for awkward humour) Picture: Getty

You’d be a great fit to host an awards show together; would you be up for that?

S: Oh, I think that’s a terrible idea! No, that would never happen. It would be the worst show ever. It’s one thing going up for five minutes and doing a bit, but having to hold down the whole show?

K: Ugh, the whole show?

S: That would be AWFUL.

The Despicable Me franchise introduced the Minions to the world. At what point in the process did you realise these characters had really taken on a life of their own beyond the films?

S: When my son told me his favourite character was the Minions. After the first film, I said, ‘Did you like it?’ He said, ‘Yeah ... I LOVED the Minions.’ Not my character though. That made old dad feel pretty good [laughs]. You never know what’s going to stand out, but in my mind they are the modern Marx Brothers. That’s the closest you get to it. It’s so genius, not only creatively but marketing-wise.

If you’re a parent of young children, you probably have a love/hate relationship with the Minions. Picture: AP

K: And also they don’t have to write jokes, because they don’t speak English.

S: They are just adorable and funny and every kid wants one. Some crazy genius came up with that idea.

Steve, you caused a stir recently when you announced on Twitter that The Office was coming back — then promptly took it back.

S: The history to that is Will and Grace is coming back for another season, so I thought it’d be funny to tweet and say ‘Hey, The Office is coming back for another season!’ and then three minutes later tweet ‘Oh, my mistake, it’s Will and Grace.’ I just thought it was a pretty innocuous joke, but apparently people got kinda mad about it because of those three minutes. When did I realise it was a bad idea? Well, when you brought it up. I like making people upset.

You’re obviously big fans of each other’s work — what’s your favourite thing that the other has ever done?

K: The first Anchorman; I’m blown away by Steve in that. But also The Office … to be that funny and heartbreaking at the same time? I’s one of my all-time favourites.

S: I think Kristen’s one of the best actors to have ever been on SNL. Her success rate is phenomenal. I did a lot of sketch comedy when I was up and coming, and even a sketch that has no right to work, will work. It is a fascinating thing to watch, and very few people are that good at it. And then Bridesmaids is one of those movies that was so funny, but so human. That really appeals to me and reflected the type of work I like to try to do: Very genuine but also outrageous. She nailed it. I’m a big fan!

The Office: ‘Heartbreaking’

Bridesmaids: ‘So funny, so human’

Despicable Me 3 is in Australian cinemas June 15.