Wanda Sykes: Yeah, She Said It and Meant It!

Wanda Sykes is known to movie and TV audiences as a smart-mouthed jokester — the type of character she plays on the sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and her current film "Evan Almighty." In the movie, Sykes is a congressional assistant named Rita, who works with politician Evan Baxter (played by Steve Carell) — a man who suddenly finds himself on a mission from God to build an ark filled with animals. Sykes, 43, recently talked about "Evan Almighty" and what it was like to work on a movie set that was literally a zoo.

What's the thing you relate to the most about your character Rita?

I love this character. She's the one person in Washington, D.C. who will speak her mind, tell it exactly the way she sees it and in some ways Rita doesn't have a fear about getting fired. I enjoy playing characters like that who are outspoken. In some ways I can relate to that, especially being a comedian. My background is doing stand-up, so when I'm on stage, I say whatever the hell I want to say. Either people laugh or they don't, but it's nice to have that freedom.

What was it like working with so many animals in "Evan Almighty"?

I gave the animals the utmost respect because I understand that the animals are just animals. They're not actors. They don't know they're in a movie. When you yell, "Cut!" they don't know what that means. If the elephant is about to crush me and they yell "Cut!," he's not going to go, "Oh, my bad. Are you all right? Oh, that was a good take. No, I think my trunk got you right here. Can we do that again?" They don't understand all that. So I kept my distance from the animals. All of the animals smelled. Even the cast. We all smelled. You couldn't help it because it was just a funky set. One time I was in the shower, I was like, "Why bother [showering]? Why am I even doing this? It means nothing." Because 10 minutes on that ark, we're going to smell like wet dogs and monkey ass. That's what it turned into.

What was it like to work with leading man Steve Carell?

Steve is so much fun to work with. He's such a good sport and a really nice guy. I don't know if I could've put up with all the stuff that he went through in this movie. He had birds and pigeons on his shoulders, and they're pooping on him. To start your off your day like, "Oh, we're starting off with the poop jacket? Let me put my poop jacket on." It's just awful. And that dirty robe he had to wear all the time, the beard and hair — he went through a lot.

What’s your take on "Evan Almighty" director Tom Shadyac?

Tom Shadyac is a nut, but he's a really nice guy. He's so laid-back but hippie crazy, too. He's so passionate about this project. He talked me into doing it because I didn't want to do it first. But he was so into it. I just loved his honesty and his passion for doing this movie. I was like, "All right, man. I'm gonna get on the ark with you."

How did you feel about working in your home state of Virginia?

I'm from Portsmouth, and Charlottesville [where "Evan Almighty" was filmed] is about two hours west of where I'm from. So my parents came to the set and they saw the animals and the big ark, and they were very impressed.

So how was it acting on such an enormous boat?

It was surreal. You’re like standing in the middle of this suburb and you're looking at this giant ark. I looked at Tom and said, "This better be funny. Or you are in a lot of trouble if this thing bombs."…Tom had the vision and it turned out great, and we're all very happy.

If you were going to build an ark in real life, how would you do it?

I would do it Donald Trump-style, in the boardroom, looking out every now and then to see how my ark was coming along. And of course, I'd have to put the flat screen TV in the ark. There'd be a nice bar in my ark, and a booming sound system all throughout. Maybe some spinning rims and a helicopter landing pad. So I'd just take God's plan and be like, "Yeah, okay, welcome to the new world. This was good back in your day. Let me show you how we're doing it now." But I wouldn't make the ark a hybrid.