People have new found respect for Steve Carell after learning truth about iconic film scene

People have a new found respect for Steve Carell after learning the truth about one of his most iconic scenes.

Being the top notch actor that he is, when Carell starred in The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, he actually performed a scene for real.

Yep, no acting required. In fact, every emotion portrayed during the scene was totally real.

The movie stars Carell as Andy Stitzer, a 40-year-old who has never had sex.

Andy spends much of his time working in his box store and playing video games. But when his friend's discover he's still a virgin, they decide to intervene to push him towards finally losing his virginity.

Andy has to try his best to overcome his awkwardness and one stage of the process is upping his grooming regime, which involved a trip to the salon to have his chest hair removed.

In massive commitment to his craft, Carell actually ended up playing this scene for real, having his actual body hair ripped from his chest IRL.

The whole scene was completely improvised, which is probably why it's so funny.

You can watch it below:

And many praised the actor for his 'dedication', as one person wrote: "I feel for him. Dedication to the max! It had to be filmed in one shot, because he wanted to have it real."

Another said: "Paul Rudd’s laughing was sincere lol," while a third simply said that this was 'cinema'.

And a fourth called him a 'legend'.

Carell wanted the scene to be as authentic as possible and actually came up with the idea himself.

All of his screams - and the rest of the cast reactions - were totally real, including Paul Rudd in fits of laughter and Romany Malco having to leave the room because he was so disgusted.

Speaking about it on The Graham Norton Show years later, Carell said: "I thought it would be funny for the guys watching it in the scene.

"There's no way you can replicate that, there's no way you can act the horror you're witnessing and the joy of watching a man go through something like that.

The scene was completely improvised (Universal Pictures)

"At one point Romany had to leave the scene because he's so utterly grossed out by the whole process."

Carell also revealed that one of the actor's waxing his chest had fibbed in the audition, claiming she was 'proficient' in waxing.

"When you wax around the nipples you're supposed to put on a little vaseline... the wax is so viscous that it will rip your nipple off," he said.

"She did not put the vaseline on my nipple."

Carell explained someone else in the scene then pointed out that it would probably be a good idea to apply the vaseline before the strip was removed.

Carell explained it was the only time in the entire scene that they cut.

"I still have two functioning nipples," he said.

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity

Lucy Devine