Steve Carell loves Taylor Swift, and he isn’t just a bandwagon fan, either. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Monday (June 10), the actor opened up about meeting the pop star for the first time many years ago, revealing the moment he knew he was going to be a lifelong Swiftie.
According to Carell, he and Swift first crossed paths when they both appeared on MTV’s TRL, hosted by Carson Daly. “[It was] early on in my career and hers, too,” the Despicable Me star said. “I met her sort of in passing, and I thought, ‘Boy, she seems special.’ Even back then. Very sweet, very nice, just had a really nice first impression.”
A few years later, Carell said he came across a sweet video of the “Anti-Hero” singer performing for a pediatric care patient in a hospital. “I remember seeing some video of her — and it wasn’t like a big, viral thing, it was just something I found in the recesses of the internet — it was her in a hospital, playing an acoustic guitar for a patient there,” he told Fallon.
“It was no big crew, it was, like, a really low-key, handheld thing she did on the sly,” Carell added. “I thought, ‘That’s so cool.’ Not publicized, leading with her heart. I thought, ‘OK, I’m a fan. I am going to root for that person.’”
It’s not the first time the actor — who is currently starring in Uncle Vanya on Broadway — has expressed his admiration for Swift. In a viral moment from a 2014 interview, Carell burst into a spontaneous performance of “Shake It Off,” after which he gushed, “I love it. I actually love Taylor Swift. I think she’s great.”
A couple years prior, Swift seemingly paid tribute to Carell and his The Office castmates by parodying the show behind the scenes of her “Ours” music video shoot.
Watch Steve Carell discuss his love for Taylor Swift on The Tonight Show above.
