Since this summer’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian moves the action from New York City’s Museum of Natural History to Washington D.C.’s network of Smithsonian museums, 20th Century Fox was smart enough to hold the film’s premiere right in the middle of the action: namely, the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.

I was lucky enough to attend, and even though I live close by, being in the museum is still an exciting experience.  Walk a few feet to the right, and you’re at the Capitol building.  A few feet to the left, and you’re at the Washington Monument.

The red carpet for the event?  A walkway above the main floor of the museum, leading into a gigantic Imax theater.  It’s the one environment where the stars walking the carpet are actually overshadowed by something else — in this case, all the awesome vintage airplanes suspended from the ceiling.

And yet the stars were there — nearly all of them.  I was able to talk to Ben Stiller, returning to the role of museum night guard Larry Daley, Ricky Gervais, as the director of the Museum of Natural History, Hank Azaria, from The Simpsons, who plays an ancient Egyptian troublemaker named Kah Mun Rah (he also voices Abraham Lincoln and The Thinker), Amy Adams, who plays Amelia Earhart as a plucky love interest, and Thomas Lennon, from Reno 911!, who co-wrote the screenplay and appears in a cameo.

Thomas Lennon

Ricky Gervais

Other famous co-stars Robin Williams and Owen Wilson were also perilously close by, but I wasn’t able to grab any quotes from either of them.  Well, kind of — I overheard Wilson telling another reporter it was O.K. to cry at the end of Marley & Me.  Which came as a relief.

Check out my full interview with Ben Stiller and my full interview with Ricky Gervais, and below, you can read quotes from everybody that I figured were worth highlighting:

Ben Stiller on Twitter:

“I don’t think I could do it.  Updating like every ten minutes? It’s a lot of responsibility. I’m not that interesting.”

Hank Azaria

Mizuo Peck (Sacajawea)

Hank Azaria on working with CGI:

“Shooting action scenes with CGI is easy, because they just animate to whatever you do. If you duck, they’ll draw something in that would make you duck. You can do whatever you want. But comedy, when you have to deal with timing, is really hard.”

Thomas Lennon, on making out with Paul Rudd in I Love You Man and co-starring with Zac Efron in 17 Again:

“[I was] terrified on both counts. And, I’ll tell you right now, both were more fun than I expected them to be. If you get the opportunity to do either one, do it. And if you get the opportunity to make out with Zac Efron, do that too. Boy, that boy’s a looker. I mean, I’m here with my wife, but you can’t argue, that’s a good-looking kid.”

Amy Adams, on Hilary Swank also playing Amelia Earhart later this year:

“Oh, we’re completely different. She’ll be fantastic, actually.”

Ricky Gervais, on Ben Stiller coercing him into doing the first movie:

“Ben e-mailed me, he said, ‘I’ve got this part, in a film, do you want to return the favor for me doing Extras? No pressure.’ That was the actual e-mail.”

Hank Azaria, in the voice of Moe from The Simpsons, after a reporter asked him if he’d be an a-hole for asking him to do the voice:

“You would be an a-hole, but I’ll do it anyway. Because Moe’s an a-hole, and it’s very difficult for him to say no to another a-hole. If you weren’t an a-hole, I wouldn’t have done it.”