The Insider.com

Just one year before The 40-Year-Old Virgin would change his life forever, Steve Carell was just beginning to catch Hollywood's attention as Anchorman's delightfully dim-witted weatherman, Brick Tamland.

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We sat down with Carell during press day for the film on this very day in 2004, where the comedian's under-appreciated talent was on full display.

When asked about how he had prepped for his turn as San Diego's Channel 4 Evening News team's "legally retarded" chief meteorologist, Carell told us the magic formula had a little something to do with his famously proclaimed love, lamp.

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"I stared at a light bulb occasionally," deadpanned Carell. "So that vacant stare that you see, it was mostly because I was trying to focus on something in the room because I'd been burning my retinas."

Additionally, he lets us in on another unforgettable component of the cult classic—the star-studded knife fight. With cameos by Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins, and Ben Stiller, the West Side Story-esque scuffle remains unforgettable, but Carell says he can scarcely remember the events of filming that day apart from his perspiration thanks to his fashionable, albeit cumbersome, 3-piece wool suit.

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"It was probably 105 degrees in downtown Los Angeles," he reflects, "You could see the heat rising off the pavement… and I was in a 3-piece wool—What should I call it? Extravaganza? Ensemble? … There was sweat in parts of my body that I never even knew existed. It had dripped into crevices, and there was chafing and it was a horror show. My body was a horror show by the end of that day."

Check out the full flashback above to hear more funny business from Carell.

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