COVER STORY: Will Ferrell
By Joe Scott, News & Record (GoTriad)
February 22, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, NC — It’s rehearsal time for Will Ferrell .
The “Saturday Night Live” alumnus and star of blockbuster films “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights” stands on a stage on the Tar Heels’ basketball court. Donning a blue and red jump suit for the now-defunct American Basketball Association, Ferrell waits for the announcer, who happens to be Adam McKay, his writing partner and frequent director, to drop an intro laden with the duo’s patented brand of bizarre hyperbole and false truths.
“And now here he is,” says McKay, his amplified voice echoing across the dome. “The man who invented the Waldorf salad and took Paula Abdul’s virginity in 1984.
“He’s the man who turned the silver screen into pure gold. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Will Ferrell!”
Suddenly, the techno theme for “Mortal Kombat” blasts from the speakers as Ferrell enters the stage performing half-hearted karate chops and kicks on a group of young performers who either fall to the ground or run away. A stuntman aims a bow and arrow at Ferrell, who pretends to catch an arrow in mid-air and send it flying into the stuntman’s heart.
Crew members drag the “dead” stuntman offstage, while an actress playing a woman in labor runs onstage and lies on the floor as Ferrell delivers a generic rubber baby doll and hoists it in the air.
“Behold, the miracle of life,” McKay says, “And he names the baby Joshua!”
Later this evening, Ferrell will entertain 10,000 fans with this same performance as part of his “Funny or Die Comedy Tour,” which made a stop at UNC-Chapel Hill last week.
Throughout February, Ferrell and his assembled team of former co-stars and young comedians, including Will Arnett and North Carolina native Zach Galifianakis , have been traveling across the country to seven universities to promote not only Ferrell’s comedy video Web site, www.FunnyOrDie.com , but also his upcoming basketball comedy “Semi-Pro,” which hits theaters Friday.
Many hilarious absurdities take place during the rehearsal for Ferrell’s evening performance. However, what puzzles me most is that an A-list star is breaking a sweat to promote a major film release in North Carolina. So, when a visibly exhausted Ferrell takes a moment to speak with a roomful of reporters after his rehearsal, the first question that pops into my mind is, “Why are you here?”
“That’s a really good question, I’ve been wondering that myself the whole time,” Ferrell says with a faux-serious tone that barely allows anyone in the room to know he’s joking.
Ferrell is often known for cracking jokes in lieu of giving straight answers in interviews. And although he drops a quick zinger or two after every question (it would be disappointing if he didn’t), he follows up each joke with a direct reply.
“It seemed like just a fun thing to get up onstage and think of a crazy reason to travel to a lot of colleges that wouldn’t get something like this normally,” Ferrell says. “Just kind of an alternative, as opposed to going to cities and doing standard interviews.”
When another reporter asks if Ferrell plans to make anymore sports comedies, he becomes mildly defensive from the implication — his most recent films “Kicking and Screaming” (soccer), “Blades of Glory” (ice skating), and now “Semi-Pro” all involved comedy and sports.
“That’s kind of in the line of questioning, ‘Am I obsessed with sports comedies?’ and I’m not,” Ferrell says. “They’re fun to do, but I don’t have this list of 80 movies I want to do that are all sports-related.”
It’s more than likely that “Semi-Pro” won’t be the last of Ferrell’s comedies to focus on an athletic event, because after all, the box-office receipts are too high for him to quit. However, beneath the sports and the crazy hairdos lies a socio-political commentary about American excess and the decline of American culture. Just as Charlie Chaplin used his beloved Tramp as a vehicle to explore the social ills of his time, Ferrell has explored similar territory through his iconic screen persona of the over-confident American idiot. His characters often wield more power and respect than they deserve. And though all of Ferrell’s characters create a lot of hilarious antics, without him, the subject matter of his films could transform into serious dramas.
In “Anchorman,” Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy is part of a damaging trend in television journalism that favors ratings and ad sales over valuable news content. In “Talladega Nights,” Ferrell’s race car driver is regarded as a genuine hero despite the fact that he’s the ultimate corporate shill and an irresponsible parent. Because Ferrell approached both of these films with a variation of his excessive American Boob character, audiences laugh while being schooled on the problems that continue to plague our society.
Stressing that his primary goal is to make people laugh, Ferrell admits that the socio-political messages are intentional, especially in the films he made with McKay.
“We love playing with that as an undercurrent that sneaks up on you a little later. It’s not obvious to a lot of people at first,” Ferrell says. “That’s fascinating to me. That’s a tone that we have to continue to comment on to keep ourselves in check.
“We have so much around here and a lot of us don’t seem to care.”
Ferrell’s character in “Semi-Pro” does seem to care, at least slightly. In the movie, he plays Jackie Moon, a has-been one-hit wonder from the ’70s who used the money from his album sales to buy a fictional American Basketball Association team in Flint, Mich. Moon employs wacky publicity events, and occasionally, decent skills on the basketball court, to prevent his economically depressed city from losing its sports team. The film is set during 1976, the year the ABA actually dissolved.
“It’s not a movie about us playing bad basketball, whether or not my character Jackie Moon is the best basketball player in the world, I don’t think you can say that for sure,” Ferrell says. “But it’s more about this insane league.”
For his next film, “Step Brothers,” (July 25 ) Ferrell hopes to continue his running commentary on American society while dropping the sports motif altogether. Co-written and directed by McKay, “Step Brothers” reunites Ferrell with his “Talladega Nights” co-star John C. Riley as best friends who both live in their single parents’ houses well into their 40s. When their parents eventually marry each other, thus making Ferrell and Riley on-screen stepbrothers, their friendship is tested as they are forced to move out and get full-time jobs.
Ferrell says “Step Brothers” is a departure from his and McKay’s previous films. Supposedly, the film will remain fairly grounded to a genuine family dynamic. And, according to Ferrell, neither he nor Riley will be playing broad, over-the-top characters.
“Both characters kind of refuse to get jobs and have a list of excuses as to why they don’t feel motivated,” Ferrell says. “It’s kind of our little way of saying there are people out there who have that kind of righteous indignation.”
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