“It’s nostalgic, but it’s not ironic.” <\/p>
When spin-off film Minions: The Rise of Gru<\/a> was released back in 2022, it kicked off a somewhat unlikely social media craze.<\/p>\n The trend, which went viral on TikTok, saw substantial groups of teenagers dressing up in formal suits and heading to the cinema to watch the film \u2013 with the phenomenon becoming known as \u201cGentleminions\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n This undoubtedly helped contribute to the movie\u2019s already impressive box office takings, with the film grossing almost $1 billion and becoming the fifth best performing film of the year \u2013 and according to star Steve Carell, he was delighted to see the trend take off.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> ahead of Despicable Me 4\u2019s release this weekend, he explained: \u201cI was talking to Chris Meledandri, who is the head of Illumination. And we were talking about it when it first started, like, \u2018Is this actually a thing or is this, like, a one-off?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we saw, I think in Texas somewhere, a bunch of kids dressed up and wore suits and went to one of the early screenings. And then it started to go viral. And that started happening all over.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the first one happened and we thought, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s really cool that those kids thought to do that.\u2019 But then it caught on, and it became a thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWhat I loved about it was that it was not ironic. Those kids had grown up with Despicable Me much like my kids did. And they unironically still love it. My kids still love the series, they go to every one. And they\u2019re 20 and 23. They still enjoy it. It\u2019s nostalgic, but it\u2019s not ironic.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Carell has been voicing reformed supervillain Gru since the first film was released back in 2010, with the new entry in the saga marking his sixth time playing the role (although his role in the first Minions spin-off was only a cameo).<\/p>\n The new film \u2013 which RadioTimes.com<\/strong> awarded 4 stars in our review<\/a> \u2013 sees Gru come up against a new nemesis in the form of Will Ferrell\u2019s French baddie Maxime le Mal, who has harboured a grudge against him since their days studying together at Lyc\u00e9e Pas Bon.<\/p>\n And Carell revealed that he enjoyed getting to square off against his old co-star Ferrell, even though they didn\u2019t spend any time recording together.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we tape it, we are never together,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t even\u2026 I didn\u2019t even recognise his voice when I saw the movie for the first time. I knew it was him, but it didn\u2019t sound like him at all. It was great!\u201d<\/p> Despicable Me 4 is released in UK cinemas on Friday 12th July 2024. <\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Film<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n “It’s nostalgic, but it’s not ironic.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54689,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend.jpg",1557,1038,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/despicable-me-4-star-steve-carell-loved-gentleminions-trend.jpg",1557,1038,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\"It's nostalgic, but it's not ironic.\"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/54688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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