Steve Carell has revealed that he was not at all impressed when Warner Bros. landed the title. Crazy, Stupid, Love for the 2011 romantic comedy, admitting that he just didn’t like it at first.
The actor, 63, spoke about the naming saga in an interview with Entertainment tonightexplaining that writer Dan Fogelman had submitted the script without a title.
“I never liked that title,” Carell said.
“Now I do, but when Dan Fogelman wrote it, he didn’t give it a title. He didn’t give it a name. It was the Dan Fogelman Project without a title.”
From there, it became a kind of creative wrestling.
Everyone involved seemed to have a suggestion, but nothing clicked. Finally, the studio stepped in and made the call.
“Finally, Warner Bros. just said, ‘We’ll call it Crazy, Stupid, Love‘” Carell recalled, admitting that his reaction at the time was a distinctly unenthusiastic, “Okay.”
The film, starring Carell alongside Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone, became a critical and commercial success, which Carell said taught him something about the relationship between a title and the quality of a film.
“I’m convinced that if it’s good and people like it, people will like the title,” he said. “It doesn’t even matter what you call it.”
Carell also touched on another of his most beloved roles, Michael Scott in the office, expressing continued surprise at how far the NBC comedy’s viewership extends, particularly among younger viewers.
“I think it’s funny how young people are when they start to see the office“, said NBC Insider in June 2024.
“Which was always a surprise to me because I never thought it would appeal to a younger audience.”
He ultimately attributed this to the universality of the show’s characters, suggesting that they extend beyond the work environment.
“I think part of it is that each of the characters is an archetype that can be translated to the people they meet at school,” he explained.
“They’re all people you can relate to, whether you’ve ever worked in an office or just associated with these people in school.”
