The 40-Year-Old Virgin Star Reveals Surprising Detail About Iconic Chest Wax Scene
Even decades later, The 40-Year-Old Virgin persists as a timeless comedy, and one scene in particular remains one of its most talked about. The chest waxing that Steve Carell undergoes on camera is not only an iconic moment but one that was playing out in real time as they filmed it, with the actor getting his chest waxed and all the reactions being genuine. There's now a new wrinkle to this story though, courtesy of co-star Paul Rudd. Speaking in one of GQ's trademark "_____ Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters" videos, Rudd spoke about the scene and with some 20/20 hindsight, offered insight into the person doing the waxing.
"When Steve was getting waxed in that scene, he really was," Rudd revealed. "The girl who actually did it said that her family owned a salon, she did this, and I was like, I don't think that was true. I don't think she'd ever done it. Like one of those things where it's like, hire an actor, he's like, 'Can you ride a horse? I can ride a horse. Can you wax it chest? I can totally wax a chest.'"
Regarding the one-take nature of the scene, Rudd went into details about how much was real, how much was being played up for the camera, and how they had to think on their feet to get the jokes in.
"We were playing into it obviously. I don't know if that's, if it's true that Romany (Malco) really did get queasy and wanted to leave, but I mean it really was like, you could tell it was painful. We set up like five cameras 'cause once you know you did it, you weren't gonna get to go back and do it again. Steve's hilarious. And he knew how to scream and make it funny and you're coming up with jokes on the fly too. I mean, I think just a pattern in which he was waxed. It's like, he did look like a pumpkin. There's always this kind of somebody with a pen off to the side writing things or sometimes you don't want it to say what you're gonna say and you don't tell anybody. If it works, it works, and if it doesn't, it doesn't."
