Steve Carell learns to love his first time

Growing up in Concord, Mass., Carell did plays and settled on an acting career, but he was not necessarily intent on playing the funnyman. He was open to dramatic roles, but his first professional gig came with Chicago's comedy troupe Second City, where he met his wife, comedic actress Nancy Walls, who has a small part as a health clinic counselor in "40-Year-Old Virgin."

After that, the roles he was offered tended toward comedy. Carell had some small parts in movies, was a writer and regular performer on the short-lived "The Dana Carvey Show" and became best known as a news correspondent on "The Daily Show."

Earlier this year, Carell did a memorable impersonation of Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur in Ferrell's big-screen "Bewitched" and also appeared with Ferrell in Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda."

Carell just finished shooting the ensemble road-trip comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," playing a gay, suicidal Proust scholar, co-starring with Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear. He also has been cast as agent Maxwell Smart in a big-screen version of the TV spy spoof "Get Smart," and joins Bruce Willis and Garry Shandling among the talking-animal voice cast in the upcoming animated tale "Over the Hedge."

The inevitable questions
The actor has been pondering the inevitable questions about when and how he lost his own virginity. Carell's wife advised him to say nothing. He's also considered making up a different story whenever someone asks, so he ends up with "about a hundred different stories as to my personal loss of virginity," Carell said.

Without naming names or revealing details, Carell ultimately admits to this: "It was probably like 95 percent of everyone's loss of virginity stories. It was fast, it was unromantic, it was uncomfortable and awkward and lacked passion and any sort of emotional connection. It was two people just kind of doing it in order to see what it was like and sort of get it out of the way."

Hitting it big in Hollywood now, Carell figures he appreciates it more than if it had happened early in his career, when he may not had the poise to handle the trappings of success.

Likewise, as a latecomer to the mysteries of sex, his character Andy probably appreciates it more than he would have if he had lost his virginity in his teens.

"People generally have sex fairly young, and probably younger than they should be having it," Carell said. "Most people aren't prepared emotionally _ I certainly wasn't _ to be having sex.

"Once you have all those emotional aspects in line and you're in sync with the other person, then you find out what it really is and how great it can be," Carell said. But sex before reaching that emotional level is "putting the cart before the horse, and you can probably make a pun out of that, as well."

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