Steve Carell goes from "Office" to end of the world

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After leaving television's 'The Office' last year, Steve Carell immediately began production on the indie film 'Seeking a Friend For the End of the World', which opens in U.S. movie theaters on Friday.

The film is about an asteroid headed toward Earth that will destroy the planet. Carell plays a newly single man who decides to go on a road trip to find his high school sweetheart. He is unexpectedly accompanied by his neighbor (Keira Knightley) who wants to find a plane to take her to her family in England.

Carell talked with Reuters about playing Knightley's love interest, and life after 'The Office'.

Q: After six years on 'The Office' the first thing you do is a quirky little movie. Why?

A: I thought the script was oddly funny and dark and absurd, but also moving and relevant. I thought it would be very challenging to try and mine any sort of comedy based on this dark premise.

Q: You mean the premise that an asteroid is about to hit Earth and everyone will die?

A: It's the flip side of one of these big asteroid movies that we've all seen with the President and the hotline and the astronauts. This is a story of what everybody else is going through. Few people know how much time they have left. Given the time you have, how do you chose to use it? Where do you find your joy? That's very present in me on a daily basis. I have my wife and two little kids. I try to live in the moment and embrace what I've got.

Q: You're 49, Keira is 27. Is she the youngest woman you've kissed on screen?

A: Boy, that's a tough one, because there have been so many!

Q: But in real life, a girl like that would never go for a guy like him.

A: Never! It would take the apocalypse to make it work. These are two people that, given any other circumstance, wouldn't become friends, let alone drawn together in a soulful way. ... All of those things melt away and it becomes about who they are, what they need and what they care about.

Q: Your other co-star is a dog who is a constant companion. What was he like to work with?

A: There were a few dogs, actually. There was the main hero dog, the junior varsity dog and a third dog. ... They got increasingly stinky the lower you went on the ladder. Their breath became worse. Their dispositions became more ornery. Our main dog seemed to have an awareness that he was being filmed and would favor the lens. He would know how to compose himself in the shots. Dog Number Two and Three just wanted out by any way possible.

Q: In August, you play a non-comedic role as a therapist to Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones in 'Hope Springs'. What was that like?

A: It was an interesting acting exercise because you have to limit any sort of impulse to judge, which is what a good therapist would do. There are no raised eyebrows, no cynicism. I tried to be almost faceless in it because it's not how he feels about them, but about how he wants to help this couple.

Q: The first season of 'The Office' without your character Michael Scott ended in May. Any regrets about leaving the show?

A: No. I felt like it was the right thing to do and the right time for me to go. It's very much akin to when I left 'The Daily Show'. I had a great job and good friends and a solid income .... I just felt like if I'm going to leave, I better leave now before I get too comfortable. I figured it was time to try something else. You never know what might be on the other side.

Q: You recently wrapped 'The Incredible Burt Wonderstone' with Jim Carrey and 'Anchorman 2' is about to start. Excited about reprising your role of meteorologist Brick Tamland?

A: They just officially green lit and we're starting in February or March. We did a teaser trailer about two months ago. That was the most fun day. We hadn't been in these characters' costumes in 8 years. It was like no time has passed. We'd all wanted to do a sequel for years, so I feel like we're all going to camp in February.

Q: You will also be playing real life millionaire John du Pont who murdered an Olympic wrestler. Do you consciously plan out your roles and your career path?

A: I can't say that I do. ... It's just by virtue of what's come along. I was stunned, frankly, that I'm the person (director Bennett Miller) thought of to play a paranoid schizophrenic murderer. I'm glad he did, but I don't think I'm first on the list in that way.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Richard Chang)



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New actors' treaty a good step, hard work remains

BEIJING (Reuters) - An international treaty expected to be signed next week is an important step to protect the intellectual property rights of actors and the creative industries but hard work will be needed to enforce it, an official involved with the pact said.

Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep and Javier Bardem have backed efforts to push the treaty, which has been more than a decade in the making. Digital technology has made it easy to download movies or television shows without paying for them.

Actors' rights to remuneration and protection of their work - unlike those of directors, screenwriters and musicians - are not included in current international copyright law.

Actors whose shows or films are sold abroad currently have no legal right to payment for those broadcasts, and if payment is made, it generally goes to the producer.

They also have no rights in many countries if their work is manipulated in any way that may harm their reputation.

'It's a real problem - it's not an artificial problem,' Francis Gurry, the World Intellectual Property Organization's director general, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

'The actors are the ones, in the international framework, who have not been catered for.'

An agreement between the United States and European Union last year paved the way for concluding the pact, though the ratification process by the U.N. body's 185 member states will take longer.

Once the treaty is signed in Beijing next week it will be up to individual countries to enforce its provisions, Gurry said, acknowledging that that could be hard in many places.

'These are necessary steps in the right direction. We have to follow through on the ground to make sure that it isn't just a symbolic act, to make sure it's got some reality to it,' he said.

'I know it's frustrating - why can't it happen overnight? The reality is that it requires a complete social adjustment.'

China and Russia, for example, are regularly excoriated by the United States and European Union for their widespread copyright piracy, despite often having laws in place to fight the problem.

In China, the latest Hollywood movies are generally widely available for sale on pirated DVDs for about $1 each soon after U.S. theatre releases - sometimes even before - costing the industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

'When you take a country that's coming from basically an agricultural economy to an advanced economy, at least in some parts, in a process of 30 years, it's normal I think that it takes time for them to develop a widespread awareness that ... there's more value in what's on the disc than the physical disc itself,' Gurry said.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)



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Julia Stiles on playing an escort on a web show

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Julia Stiles holds a degree in English literature from Columbia University and has taken the stage in plays written by David Mamet and some guy named Shakespeare.

Despite that pedigree, the cynical teen from '10 Things I Hate About You' and secret agent from the Bourne movies wants to spend her Monday talking about female escorts.

Well, whether she wants to or not, Stiles must talk about the subject. She is the star of 'Blue,' the latest series from Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia's YouTube Channel, Wigs.

In 'Blue,' Stiles stars as the title character, part-working mom, part-escort, making extra money to make ends meet.

With a gun to our head, TheWrap obliged, talking with Stiles about Hollywood's fascination with escorts, getting her boyfriend to pay her for sex while doing the show for free and the real problem with online video - it doesn't pay.

Q: You did 'The Today Show' today and seem to have a lot of interviews lined up. I'm sure everyone has been asking you about why you did this show and what you think of working for a web show.

A: 'Yeah, I'm scared of the internet kind of. It just turned out that when I read the script, the first episode hooked me. It's a great premise for a story, a girl who is living a secret life and going to drown in the lies she has to tell. There's a reason there are lots of movies and TV shows about escorts. What happens when people pay for sex?'

'The downside of web content - scripted web content - is that there is no money involved. No one is earning a living. The upside is there is a lot of creative freedom.'

Q: And it's a pretty quick shoot, no? You can do a show for two weeks and be done.

A: 'We shoot one episode a day and it's 12 episodes. Sometimes I get worried that our attention spans are getting short. We only watch content that can be downloaded. What we're trying to do with 'Blue,' and what they are trying to do with whole channel, is tell a story that builds to a longer story. Each one is a brick that builds a house. A 7-minute episode is an interesting chapter in a large book. Ultimately 12 episodes amounts to the length of a movie.'

Q: Long-form content for the attention-deficit generation?

A: 'Is that what they call it?'

Q: Have you watched the other shows on 'Wigs'? Having spoken with Jon and Rodrigo before, they describe this as a channel for women. Do you agree with that as a unifying element?

A: 'They say that it's for women. To me, the link is each central character is a woman. What's refreshing about having Rodrigo Garcia and Jon Avnet driving this is it's a little more well-rounded than just for women. For me with 'Blue,' one of the most interesting questions proposed is she asks one of her clients 'Why are you paying for sex? What happens when people pay for sex?''

Q: Now, your first client on the show is your real-life boyfriend?

A: 'It happened because I read the script and we had worked together a few times and knew it wouldn't be weird. He's a really good actor.'

'I knew the Cooper part was interesting and luckily he got on board. It made my life easier because it's one of the more intimate scenes. Honestly he's a good actor and we try to work together as much as we can. Plus, I was asking him to do this for free. Everyone is working for free.'

Q: Do you sense actors are more open to online video? It seems like a lot more recognizable names are participating?

A: 'For me it's very specific to this one project. If Rodrigo hadn't been involved, if he hadn't written it, I wouldn't have been as keen.'

Q: Why was Rodrigo's involvement so critical?

A: 'Whether or not I want to work on something stems from writing. He's a really, really good writer; I knew I would be in good hands, especially with this kind of subject matter. His interests are in keeping with mine.'

Q: Which are?

A: 'Well, he wasn't trying to make 'The Red Shoe Diaries.' He's interested in characters. It's character-driven. I could go for plot and character, but in terms of work I am more interested in character driven.'\

Q: If this is really successful, would you come back for another season or are you one and done?

A: 'We're waiting to see how people respond. If Rodrigo wanted to write more I'd certainly be interested. But they have to figure out a way to make a living, to pay the crew. These things have a way of righting themselves.'

'The people at the top have to find a way to share wealth. Nobody knows where the ad revenue is going. Once we figure out where that's going, we can spread it around with the crew. The pitfall of that is the more money involved, the less freedom you have.'

Q: It almost makes movie studios look like benefactors.

A: 'Like the Medicis. In fairness, it's a reasonable schedule. One episode a day. We can't work more than 10-12 hours. It's pretty civilized compared to some movie schedules. I don't know where it's going. It's the question with any industry. As a journalist you are experiencing this too. The music industry went through a crisis. These things have a way of righting themselves.'

'There are so many ads on the Internet now you actually can't watch anything without watching an ad. People will get sick of that. They'll make you subscribe to skip all the ads. I just show up and say my lines.'



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