He's becoming a larger part of the movies than overpriced popcorn.

And he's turning into a bigger component of television than the remote control.

But blockbuster triumphs have not changed the personality of Steve Carell.

"I'm pretty much the same kind of boring guy," Carell said. "As Stephen Colbert ("The Daily Show") once described me in an interview, I am 'beige against a tan wall.' I'm pretty nondescript."

Before Carell hit the entertainment industry with his uniquely mundane comedic fare, he experienced some embarrassing college moments at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

"I was not aware of the term 'grain alcohol,'" he said. "I was tasting this punch that was served up in garbage cans lined with plastic bags — so there was a lot of it. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds of people at these parties. I thought, 'Boy, I really can't taste any alcohol in this, so I'm going to have to drink a lot in order to get any sort of buzz.'

"The next thing I remember was rolling. I was rolling back to my dorm. I woke up in my bed the next morning in a bed covered with leaves and grass. I was fully clothed. I had bruises. I honestly don't know what happened other than there was vomiting involved and a lot of rolling," Carell said.

He offered some advice from the humiliating collegiate experience.

"The thing that I learned was that you can't taste grain alcohol — and that's the key. So when you're having punch at a frat party, don't be fooled by the lack of alcohol taste."

After college — like most actors in the beginning of their careers — Carell had started out with some less-than-high-profile roles.

"I did a McDonald's commercial where they were promoting Triple Cheeseburgers. And I had three arms, so there was a guy standing behind me using his arm to help me eat the Triple Cheeseburger along with my own two natural attached arms.

"And I thought when I was doing that, 'This is it. I am a complete and utter success that I've a gotten a local McDonald's commercial — in which I'm eating a Triple Cheeseburger.' (It) seemed me there was no way I could have achieved a higher goal."

But the best had yet to come for Carell. He now has a starring role on the hit television show "The Office," after making his television mark as a correspondent on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

After leaving "The Daily Show," Carell said he was not offered a spin-off like Stephen Colbert ("The Colbert Report") and made the career choice to move to California.

"It came to a point on 'The Daily Show' where I just figured that my wife and I really had to decide where we were going to live and raise a family. Whether it was going to be on the East Coast — outside of New York — or whether we were going to eventually find ourselves back in California.

"We both agreed that there would potentially be more work in California. Because after 'The Daily Show,' there just didn't seem to be as much opportunity in the New York area."

Carell also had all kinds of praise for Colbert's work on his new show.

"(Colbert) is so good on that show, and I could never do what he does. It's just such a great show, and I respect him so much for being able to pull that off. And it just got renewed for the whole year, so he is off and running," Carell said.

Concerning Carell's character Michael Scott on "The Office," which airs 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC, he credits it to a variety of influences.

"Inspiration came from a conglomeration of every boob and idiot that I've met through my life — certainly teachers that I've had, certainly bosses I've had," he said. "It's not any one person, but I think everybody knows at least one person like Michael Scott, in that it's a guy with an enormous blind spot.

"Just someone who doesn't understand how other people perceive them."

He also offered a mandate about his character on "The Office." "The rule of thumb is if you don't know a Michael Scott, then you are a Michael Scott," he said. "And that's sort of too scary a concept to actually reckon with."

Besides playing such an interesting character, Carell enjoys the lack of censorship on the show.

"We get away with a lot in 'The Office.' I was able to say the word 'boner,' which we were incredibly happy about," Carell said.

"We're getting away with some stuff, so I certainly can't complain about being overly censored. You have to understand that it's network television, so there are parameters."

Carell, who co-wrote and starred in the summer blockbuster "The 40 Year Old Virgin," mentioned there was a struggle with his writing partner, Judd Apatow, about how raunchy the film should be.

"When Judd and I were writing it, he was pushing for dirtier, and I was always sort of pulling back away from it," he said. "I didn't want it so dirty that it took people out of the movie. I didn't want it so raunchy that's what they came away with — neither did he.

"But I think he was more inclined to air on the side of shooting something that was a bit too raunchy and knowing that we could pull back on it."

Carell admitted he has no regrets for what went into the film and what did not.

"There wasn't any one particular thing that was very crass that I wished had gone in. There will be a lot on the DVD that is full-frontal nudity, and stuff that just didn't make it into the movie and was not necessarily integral to the movie — but will make many teenage boys very happy."

Currently, Carell is signed on to play Maxwell Smart in a remake of the television show "Get Smart," which he sees as a huge challenge.

"Here you have this iconic TV show that you're asked to do another version of," he said. "There is a huge downside to doing any remake because you run the risk of offending people who love the original.

"There's a lot at stake. Unless you make it different or ingenious on your take on it, you're going to fail."

Although, Carell said, he embarks upon roles with a light heart.

"I approach everything just in the sense that I want to have fun with it. I hope that people enjoy it."