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Will Ferrell

For this Hollywood funnyman, comedy is serious business.
November 2006

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but SER

AFTER SEEING HIS NEW FILM, MOVIEGOERS MIGHT BEGIN TO TAKE

I O U

COMIC SUPERSTAR WILL FERRELL A LITTLE MORE SERIOUSLY

SLY, folks..........

words by > Bret Love

In Hollywood, comedy is serious business. A casual glance at a list of Tinseltown’s most successful actors—Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Adam Sandler chief among them—suggests that making audiences laugh is quite often the first step toward making serious box-office bucks. But what proves surprising is how serious these funny men can be about their craft.

Take Will Ferrell, for instance. This is a man known for the outlandish characters and oh-no-he-didn’t behavior that took him from being one of “Saturday Night Live’s” most critically lambasted freshman featured players back in 1995 to one of the biggest movie stars in the world 11 years later (this summer’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which he cowrote and starred in, grossed more than $130 million domestically). In person, the laidback, six-foot-three comedian comes across like a typical guy next door, with a congenial sort of affability that suggests he’s probably more comfortable at home with his family (wife Viveca and two-year-old son Magnus), with a beer in one hand and a remote control in the other, than he is making the usual promotional rounds to hype his films. Truth is, Ferrell almost didn’t become an actor at all; he attended the University of Southern California with every intention of becoming a sports broadcaster.

“I graduated from college with a degree in sports information and started working on a sports show at a local cable news station,” he recalls. “They had pretty good press credentials for such a rinky-dink operation, so I was able to get into Lakers games and stuff like that. This was when the Rams were still in LA, and there was an opportunity to interview the head coach. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t wanna do that. It’s too much work! I’ve got to load the camera and the audio equipment.’ That’s not a good attitude if you really want to do that sort of job.”

Around that time, Ferrell enrolled in an acting workshop and was soon hooked on performing, influenced by comedy legends Steve Martin and Bill Murray, as well as stand-up comedians he saw on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” He eventually joined LA’s premier comedy troupe, the Groundlings (where Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz and PeeWee Herman launched their careers), and he was soon writing and appearing in sketches there with future “SNL” cast members Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri.

“That experience was pivotal,” he says. “It was a chance to learn the basic rules of improv, and the Groundlings emphasized a lot of writing. When we got hired to ‘SNL,’ we were a lot better equipped to enter the show because we knew how to write sketches and create characters. That’s what the Groundlings was all about.”

It was his work with the troupe that got Ferrell discovered by “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels. His knack for celebrity impersonations (including George W. Bush, Janet Reno, sportscaster Harry Caray and “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek) and creating memorable original characters eventually made him the show’s most popular, highest-paid cast member. But more importantly, “SNL” was also where Ferrell met Adam McKay, the writer who would become his partner-in-crime as cowriter and director of films such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers (due out in 2008).

“Adam is one of my best friends,” says Ferrell. “We got hired on ‘SNL’ at the same time, and he cast me in a lot of his sketches. He said in an interview that I was a buffer for him, because he could write the weirdest things and cast me in it, and it would somehow work because I’m like the guy next door. We decided to try to write a movie together. Adam is arguably the funniest person I know, and he’s super-smart. We have this rhythm where I’ll stay in character, he’ll yell out lines he’s making up in his head from behind the camera and I’ll parrot it back to him. No offense to other people I’ve worked with, but collaborating with him is the most fun I have.”

That’s pretty high praise when you consider some of the so-called “Frat Pack” friends Ferrell has worked with, including Ben Stiller (Zoolander), Vince Vaughn (Old School), Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers) and Steve Carell (Anchorman). Individually, these like-minded actors have appeared in some of the most successful comedies of the past five years. But collectively, many critics credit them with ushering in a more adult era in Hollywood comedies after years of American Pie–inspired teen-flick dominance.

“That’s more in the eyes of the media. It’s just a convergence in that we all think that the same types of things are funny. That’s what was so cool last summer, when Wedding Crashers and 40-Year-Old Virgin hit so hard. It was like, ‘Wow, people really do want to see this!’ But because of all the hype about us working together, you might see a little less of it, just because we’re all so conscious of it now. Then again, Ben Stiller is producing Blades of Glory (due in 2007), which I’m working on now, and I’m still trying to work with Jack Black.” But is he a member of the “Frat Pack”? Ferrell says with a mock-confused grin. “I don’t know.”

Improvising a bit about the Frat Pack’s hazing rituals, secret handshakes and meeting once a year in an undisclosed location “to decide the fate of comedy,” Ferrell shows flashes of the brilliance that has elevated him to the upper echelon of the fiercest, funniest forces in film since Bill Murray’s peak (see: Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters). Although his off-camera persona rarely hints at the buffoonish on-screen insanity he’s capable of, he seems to relish crossing lines most actors shy away from. Which raises the question: If he wasn’t a big-screen star, would he still be the sort of person who’s willing to do anything to get a laugh?

“I’m not so much an exhibitionist,” Ferrell says. “I mean, I haven’t had many opportunities in my private life to streak since I became famous. But prior to being famous? I didn’t seek it out, but if someone dared me, it wasn’t that big a deal. I was in a fraternity, so I ran up and down fraternity/sorority row naked a fair amount of times. But it just wasn’t that big a deal, so in the context of doing it on film or TV… I’ve always felt like, ‘if you’re going to do comedy, you might as well really go for it.’”

Of course, the same could also be said for drama. Ferrell hasn’t had much of a chance to play more serious roles on-screen yet, but he dabbled in art films when he landed a role in Woody Allen’s underrated 2004 film Melinda and Melinda. And this month, he’s starring in Stranger Than Fiction, directed by Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland). Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a nerdy nebbish of an IRS agent who discovers that an unseen narrator is chronicling the events of his life in a voice only he can hear. With the help of a literature professor (played by Dustin Hoffman), Crick realizes he’s part of the latest work-in-progress of a British novelist (Emma Thompson) and tries to wrest for control of his life before it takes a tragic turn.

“It’s a really muted, low-key, realistic performance,” Ferrell says with an air of hopefulness. “It will be a radically different thing for people to see me in, with a wider release than Melinda and Melinda, so I’m excited to see how people will respond to it.”

Because of its quirky, offbeat premise and colorful characters (including Maggie Gyllenhaal as an anarchist biker chick), it’s no surprise that Stranger Than Fiction is being compared to the smart, brilliantly skewed work of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). And early buzz suggests that the film will change the way people perceive Ferrell. As he gushingly describes Forster (who’s not exactly famous for comedy) as a genius, recalling the “amazing” experience of working with him and insisting he’d work with only Forster and McKay from now on if he could, one begins to wonder if Ferrell isn’t yet another famous funny man who secretly yearns to be taken seriously.

“That appeals to me,” Ferrell says, “but it’s certainly not an obsession of mine. I don’t feel compelled to prove that I can do more dramatic stuff. But at the same time, it is human nature to want to try to do different things and explore different aspects of yourself. Hopefully, after this, I’ll have more opportunities like that.”

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