AVC: How did the idea for The 40-Year-Old Virgin come about?
SC: I thought the notion was pretty funny, that a guy would be harboring this enormous secret, and once it's revealed, he sort of has to deal with more than just having sex, but also growing up and having a relationship and potentially falling in love. I thought there were comedic opportunities and the opportunity to have a heart with it and tell a story, as opposed to just having a series of setpieces and wacky characters.
AVC: Your character is surprisingly three-dimensional. He's sort of the butt of the joke, but you end up being sympathetic.
SC: We didn't want to make the guy a creep, or someone who's emotionally damaged, or some crazy über-nerd. He's just a normal guy who missed out on some opportunities, and we didn't want to retread the cliché of who a virgin might be. We actually did a lot of reading about case studies of middle-aged virginity, and the people we read about were not unlike the character. They were just normal people functioning in our society who for one reason or another gave up. And it's not because they didn't want to, or weren't capable of it, they had just given up on the whole notion.
AVC: In a weird way, it's a coming-of-age movie.
SC: I pitched it to [co-writer/director/producer] Judd [Apatow] as a coming-of-middle-age movie.
AVC: You stepped into an iconic character when you took the lead in the American version of The Office. Were you a big fan of the show?
SC: I'd only seen part of the pilot, and the reason I watched that much is because Ricky Gervais is so good and so definitive that to watch more would've made me want to do an impression of him. I thought that was not the best way to go about it.
AVC: The Office was quite the water-cooler favorite. Did you realize you would have an opportunity to take over that role?
SC: I had heard about it, but I'd just never gotten around to watching it. A lot of my friends had recommended it, but I had never done it. It was like the first three years of Seinfeld; people kept telling me, "This is a good show! You should see it!" and I didn't catch it 'til much later in its run. I guess I'm a bit behind the curve in terms of... Well, same with Ali G. I'd heard about it, but it took a long time for me to actually see it.
AVC: How involved is Gervais as the show's executive producer?
SC: Not so much. Last year, he would watch our dailies from shooting and he would e-mail notes, but I see he's involved with his other show [Extras] this year, so I don't think we're even getting notes from him this year. He's just been supportive, honestly, he's just tickled about how it turned out over here, and had nothing but good things to say about it.
AVC: You have a very strange role in Bewitched.
SC: I haven't even seen Bewitched yet.
AVC: How did that role come about?
SC: Nora Ephron asked if I wanted to play Uncle Arthur, and I thought, "Wow, Nora Ephron, she has quite a track record as a writer, a director." And I loved working with Will [Ferrell], so I thought, "That might be kind of silly and fun to do." And I'd never tried to do an impression of anybody, so I thought I'd give that a shot.
AVC: Did you spend a lot of time studying Paul Lynde to prepare for playing the role he'd played in the original TV series?
SC: I didn't, because it wasn't so much an impression. As she put it, she wanted me to channel the essence of the guy, as opposed to doing a full-blown impression of the guy.
AVC: So do you feel like you channeled the essence of Paul Lynde?
SC: I think I did, and I doubt I will ever have to channel his essence again, but I was glad I was able to do it for that brief period.
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