There are times in your life when career changes just have to be made -- and Steve Carell, who left "The Office" to pursue a film career, knows all about that. And in "Despicable Me 2," he returns as former evildoer Gru, who has left the bad guy biz to look after three young girls and make "terrible" jams and jellies, as the actor explained to TODAY's Savannah Guthrie Wednesday.
"(Gru) needed to shake it up," said Carell. "He's sort of at a career impasse. He can't be a villain any more because he's got these three little girls to take care of now. He has a lot on his plate right now."
The funnyman said he actually empathized with some of what Gru is going through -- one of the daughters in the movie is hitting her teen years and finding an interest in boys, while in real life Carell says he's bracing for when those emotions well up in his real-life 12-year-old daughter.
"There's that anticipation of 'Am I going to be an overprotective dad?'" he wondered. "I will roll with it. I hope I'm a cool dad."
"Despicable Me 2" opens in theaters on July 3.