Steve Carell's 'Very Surreal Year'

By: Amy Bonawitz

Steve Carell calls himself a second banana, but perhaps he needs to give that some more thought. These days, he's commanding the spotlight.

As The Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman reported Monday, Carell's latest venture is a little movie that came up big at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, "Little Miss Sunshine."

Carell plays the brother-in-law along for the ride with Greg Kinnear's character, a motivational speaker who takes his family on a strange road trip to a kids' beauty pageant.

"Little Miss Sunshine," observes Kauffman, is a dark comedy, balancing humor and heartbreak.

"I think a lot of people are describing it as a dysfunctional family road trip comedy," Carell tells Kauffman, "but, in a sense, this family is just about as functional as any other … so, they're actually kind of functional, but just a little crazy."

In "Sunshine," Carell portrays a suicidal scholar.

It's a far cry from his last film, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

In one scene in "Virgin," a medical technician pulls large patches of hair from Carell's chest.

He says it took about six weeks to grow the hair back: "I had a clown face on my chest, and it was pretty horrifying."

Would he do it again? "Certainly not in the near future," Carell kids, "unless they give me money. It all comes back to that!"

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which Carell wrote and produced, made him a star, Kauffman says. He won legions of fans, and an MTV Movie Award.

Then, Carell grabbed a Golden Globe for his role on the TV show "The Office."

In it, Carell plays Michael Scott, the self-congratulatory boss at a paper supply firm.

Some in Hollywood are calling Carell the front-runner for an Emmy, but he says he will "definitely not win."