Steve Carell Was Not Sold On Minions After First Despicable Me Pitch

[banglabhai420]

Steve Carell was initially not sold on the minions in the first pitch for Despicable Me. Carell reprises his role of Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Rise of Gru is the follow-up to 2015’s Minions and also features vocal performances from Danny Trejo, Alan Arkin, Taraji P. Henson, Pierre Coffin, Michelle Yeoh, and Julie Andrews.

Carell debuted as the supervillain-turned-foster-father Gru back in 2010 with Despicable Me. Despicable Me turned immensely popular, and inspired two sequels. The much-adored tiny yellow creatures, the minions, spawned their very own spinoff of the main Despicable Me franchise with Minions. Now, Rise of Gru combines the two worlds of the franchise, as it is a prequel that focuses on the origin story of Gru and how he came to meet the minions.

Despite their popularity, Carell was not always enthusiastic about the minions’ presence in Despicable Me. In a recent interview with Late Night with Seth Meyers, Carell reveals his reaction when the minions were first pitched to him. The team brought in concept photos of the minions and described them exactly as they turned out on screen. But on paper, the minions did not seem nearly as appealing as they did on screen. Check out the full exchange between Carell and Seth Meyers:

Seth Meyers: What was it like the first time you had the idea of minions explained to you? 

Steve Carell: I thought ‘good luck with that. Because well, they showed me a picture and I thought, well, sure, they’re these cylindrical, yellow objects that have either goggles, maybe one eye, maybe two eyes. It was explained to me that they don’t speak English, they speak in a gibberish, so you can’t really understand them, and they’re hilarious. And I thought ‘alright, well, good, good for you guys.’ And it turned out to be a stroke of genius. 

Before the minions the world knows and loves today, it is understandable why Carell had this hilarious reaction to the Despicable Me minions. On paper, the idea of minions appears confusing and even perhaps ludicrous. The minions are eccentric on-screen in their final rendition, but absolutely confounding on paper. As Carell highlights, the gibberish-speaking tiny cylindrical creatures do not inherently seem like they would hold a widespread appeal.

But sure enough, the minions were “a stroke of genius.” As one of the most popular aspects of the first Despicable Me film, the minions garnered enough fame and attention to spawn two minion-focused offshoot films, establishing Despicable Me as a franchise rather than the one-off cute movie the directors likely expected going in. The lovable chattering creatures will make a return in Minions: Rise of Gru, and that will not even be the end for the minions. Despicable Me 4 has already been announced, which will undoubtedly bring the minions back to audiences.

[Silent Watcher]

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