Minions: The Rise of Gru Star Steve Carell Reveals Inspiration Behind Younger Gru's Laugh

Hi. Congratulations. I saw the film. I loved it.

Thanks. It's so good.

Now, Gru in the movie had to make sure he had a really good night's sleep before the biggest day of his life, he said. What is one thing that you do before a really big day?

Um wow. I never really thought I There are no big days. They are all, they all just kind of blend together and you just kind of take each one. I you know what? A really big day, like if I'm gonna be super active, I'll have a good breakfast. I'll like make pancakes. I'll like make a really hearty breakfast because I trick myself into thinking that that's going to give me energy.

So you're not worried about the night sleep before. Just the

Well that helps. Sure. Yeah, but that morning, that's what I will do. And sometimes I'll brush my teeth. Sometimes. Just depends.

Just sometimes. On like a big, big day, I get it. On a special day with special people. Did you eat the pancakes this morning?

No. No. I No, I I had a granola bar this morning.

Love it.

I had no time for pancakes and I had no pancake mix. I I ran out of time. It wouldn't have even mattered. Wasn't even an option. Wasn't even on the menu.

And so okay, so your kids helped you land on the older version, the older Gru's voice. So did your kids help you or give you advice when it came to younger Gru's voice or did you

No, I just kind of started to wing younger Gru. I started with older Gru and sort of worked backwards a little bit, tried to lighten his voice a little bit, made made him a little more earnest, a little more wide-eyed and excited and uh, just went from there.

And you said the laugh was a little bit different. That was a little more pinched for you?

Yeah. It's more it's it's less and more. It just it's just kind of goes up into the nose a little bit.

And you've played this character for so long. So do you ever catch yourself like when you get home after recording or wherever you record, do you ever accidentally do the voice or no? Like you're pretty

Never. No, my wife would kill me. If I walked around doing Gru, she'd be, okay, that's cute. Enough. Enough with that. Stop it. Stop practicing on me.

Love it. What is your kid's favorite thing about you playing Gru? Do they ever comment on it?

The Well, they've liked it from the beginning. They were four and seven when I started this whole thing. And now they're 18 and 21 and they're coming to the premiere and I told them they didn't have to, you know, I I wouldn't be offended, but they're all in. They're bringing friends. They're like totally into it because they grew up with it, you know, they they they they loved it, they love the characters and um, it's always been something really fun that we've always shared as a family.

That's actually cute though, because they like it's something like you're going to the younger side of Gru and now they're like even more excited. They're like, oh my gosh, like this journey. So they're growing up. Right. Like intersected. You like crossed going the other way, exactly. And what is the biggest difference you think that you love about younger Gru versus older Gru?

Um, I one fun thing about younger Gru is that life is life is just an open book for him. He it can go anywhere. Um, and there's also that there's a timidity to him uh, and I think at that age people just want to feel like they're part of something. Yeah. And they're trying to find their friend group and who will take care of them, who they can take care of and there's a there's a sweetness to that and that's something that I enjoyed playing because I think it's a universal feeling for kids that age that they're just trying to they're trying to become a part of Yeah. of something.

Love it. Well, congratulations. You're amazing and I hope your family enjoys the premiere and it

Thanks. Appreciate it.

See you later.

See you.