When someone's had huge comic success on both the big and small screens, like Steve Carell earned working on Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Daily Show, and The Office, you'd think that he would be pretty confident going up for roles. Well, except maybe when the character is already known, loved, and, most of all, completely unique. And maybe when the part was originally written by Mel Brooks. And when you have to be funny while hanging from a 50 foot rope. Steve Carell recently took time to explain to reporters just how intimidating some parts of filming Get Smart  were, including Alan Arkin's haymakers.

Q: I have to say, when I heard that they were making Get Smart, the only actor I thought of to pull this off was you.  I understand, though, you went to the reading thinking here is my picture, here is my resume, that you were going to have to play for this. What are you mental?

A: I am mental. I like the way you put that. [Laughs] No, I got called in after Anchorman and it was before 40 Year Old Virgin, and you know, I was auditioning for stuff and trying to get my next job and Warner Brothers called and said they are interested in [me] for Get Smart.  So I went over with picture and resume in hand, and I walked into a conference room, and it was the executives and producer saying, "We want you to play Maxwell Smart," so that was a huge sort of surreal moment for me .

Q: Now looking at what you’ve done in this film, I mean, "Steve Carell: Action Hero," are you ready for that? 

A: I am so...I’ve been ready my entire life. I was born to be an action hero, don’t you think?  I think the world has been waiting for me to sort of...no. Not in a million years. It’s ridiculous, and that’s part of the fun of it, the fact that, well, you know "Princess Diaries" [Get Smart co-star Anne Hathaway] is also an action hero.   It’s crazy, you know? It’s so funny, the two of us hanging 50 feet in the air from a rope, and we’re looking at each other laughing, like, what transpired to put us both here?  But it was fun.

Q: I think Dwayne Johnson really is shaking in his boots.

A: I think he should, because I think I have in my entire body about the same muscle mass as he has in his right bicep.

Q: What totally challenged you in this? Because there is action, and then there is also trying not to copy Don Adams. There’s a lot going on here.

A: I didn’t want to do an impersonation of him. That was a huge thing because he’s so good.  He is — and I think I overuse the word "iconic" — but that person that he created, that character, was so unique, and that voice is so unique and all of the mannerisms. I thought, you know, leave that alone. That’s his and there is no way I can do what he did.  So I tried to take an essence of what he did and sort of reinterpret it.

Q: Was it fun or scary or daunting repeating some of those famous lines?

A: That was the hardest part, repeating some. His famous “would you believe” and “missed it by that much,” those were really hard because it’s ingrained. The way he said it was so ingrained.  So I guess I tried to just pay homage to what he did without doing an exact knock off of it.

Q:  Of course you can’t have this movie without all the fantastic gadgets. Are you a gadget guy?

A: No, I’m an idiot. I’m mental as you said. I don’t get gadgets, I have a cell phone, that’s pretty much the extent of it. I press the receive button and I can answer the phone, and I press send and I send, and I call, but that’s the extent of it.

Q: But at least we got the shoe phone in.

A: The shoe phone got in. People always ask me, in the age of cell phones, how would a shoe phone be relevant?  But I think the writers did a clever way of connecting the shoe phone to a modern day world.

Q: Now you also have some pretty nice dance moves.

A: Yes I do, I thank you for noticing that.

Q: I was very impressed, and I would like to know now if you’re thinking about Dancing with the Stars?

A: Yes I am. I will be on Dancing with the Stars year 2015.

Q: Why so far ahead?

A: Well I’m just giving myself some time to get in shape and practice up.

Q: Now I know that you really wanted Alan Arkin. Obviously you’ve had that relationship with him from Little Miss Sunshine. I thought he was such a spectacular Chief, but it was also fun to see Chief get out from behind the desk and do some action.  Did that surprise you about Alan?

A: Alan is a very vital person. Alan is someone...he’s a strong guy. He’s a very, very healthy, robust guy, and I’m glad the movie got to show that side of him.  You know, I like the fact that he’s not a desk jockey and that he’ll go out and he’ll punch people out when need be, and he did that to us too.  You know, off the set, just to assert himself, show his dominance.

Q: I heard Anne also had the Alan Arkin fan club going there.

A: She did. She had tee shirts made up, huge, huge. I think there’s a little something going on there.  I don’t want to spill the beans, but a little something...there’s a weirdness going on there that I just didn’t want to get involved with.

Q: And also who really surprised me in this movie was Dwayne [wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]. I mean we all know him as "The Rock." Now that he’s Dwayne Johnson, he is freaking hilarious.

A: Yes, he is really, and I shouldn’t say it surprised me but it did.  He is an incredibly sweet guy, very smart and understands comedy.  He understands what can be funny, and, yeah, that was an absolute pleasure. I hope I get to work with him again.

Q: You got the stamp of approval from Mel Brooks. Now, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, I mean, what an amazing writing team on the original series. I mean you guys had great writers, but to get that stamp of approval from Mel, what was that like?

A: That was a big. We held our breath on that one because you don’t know. And he was included on the process and he was never on set, but Pete [directer Peter Segal] would tell him and run things by him, and he finally saw the movie a couple of weeks ago and raved about. And we all breathed a sigh of relief, and we’re happy because we did it our of love and respect for what he helped create and wanted to please the Poppa-Bear.