Tina Fey and Steve Carell hit the town in ‘Date Night’

April 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Movie

Date Night

Claire and Phil Foster are a suburban couple slogging through their daily lives and marriage. Even their "date nights" of dinner and a movie have become routine. To reignite the marital spark, they visit a trendy Manhattan bistro, where a case of mistaken identity hurtles them through the city at breakneck speeds, into non-stop adventure. Remembering what made them so special together, Phil and Claire take on a couple of corrupt cops, a top-level mobster and a crazed cabbie as their date becomes a night they'll never forget.

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Associated Press

NEW YORK

Thursday nights on NBC, Tina Fey is Liz Lemon and Steve Carell is Michael Scott. Neither is particularly functional.

But in the new big-screen comedy “Date Night,” Fey and Carell discover unforeseen talents, playing married parents whose night out in Manhattan turns into a wild adventure due to a case of mistaken identity.

The pairing is fitting. Fey are Carell aren’t just two of NBC’s most famous, award-winning faces, whose shows normally sit side by side. They’re both alumni of the famed bastion of improv, Second City.

In a recent interview, Carell, 47, and Fey, 39, discussed their collaboration, which was directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum”). After the interview, Fey stood up and did a “cheeseburger macaroni” dance, excited that dinner with her daughter was approaching.

Q. Do you both consider yourselves improv comedians at heart, rather than standup comedians?

FEY: For sure.

CARELL: Yeah, I think I’d fail miserably.

Q. “Weekend Update” had a standup feel sometimes.

FEY: It is joke-telling, but I never wanted to do it alone. I did it with Jimmy [Fallon]and when Jimmy left, I had the opportunity to do it alone or do it with someone else. I was like, “No, no.” Telling jokes alone, you’re a standup, but telling jokes with a buddy, you have someone to go to if the jokes fail — that’s what I’m used to.

CARELL: You’re used to jokes failing.

FEY: Yes, all my jokes fail.

Q. Steve, you’re renown for your niceness, while, Tina, you’ve recently said that you represent “normalcy.” That makes for an interesting combo: nice and normal.

CARELL: It’s our vaudeville act.

FEY: Normalcy and Niceness go to the circus. It’s like Goofus and Gallant.

Q. In “Date Night,” you have basically a “North By Northwest” premise of mistaken identity. Only instead of a chiseled Mount Rushmore, there’s the chiseled naked torso of Mark Wahlberg.

FEY: An American treasure in itself.

CARELL: The finale was going to take place on his chest.

Q. Is it hard to relinquish some control, Tina?

FEY: No, it felt like a vacation to come in and have this script that we were definitely allowed to give input on.