Steve Carell 'looked like a serial killer'

Steve Carell has revealed that The 40-Year-Old Virgin almost never made it into cinemas – because studio bosses thought he looked 'too much like a serial killer'.

Executives ordered production be wound up on the 2005 movie comedy after just one week of shooting, fearing that The Office star looked too creepy to generate laughs.

The star told Conan O'Brien on his talk show last night: 'We were doing a scene on location somewhere, and Judd Apatow, who was the director, came in and said, "Universal want to talk to us; they're shutting us down."

'We had to go in, and they said, "We've been watching footage" — we'd only been shooting for five days! — "We've been watching footage, and you look like a serial killer".

'And we hadn't shot any dialogue, it was me riding my bike with a weird helmet and it was me walking down the street and seeing suggestive posters. Just that week, compiled, they went "No, no, no, no… this is not a comedy."'

Asked whether he felt devastated by the news, Carell conceded: 'I was so bummed out, I thought, "That's it, that was the big shot and it wasn't going to work out" and then thankfully we started up and finished shooting.'

The movie went on to be a summer hit, opening at No. 1 at the box office,and grossing $21.4million during its opening weekend. In total it brought in $177million.

Here is Carell's appearance on Conan:

Published: 13 Jan 2016