CraveOnline: We have to talk about crotch proximity because you guys got very close to each other. Did you have to set any boundaries?
Will Ferrell: I had a restraining order against his crotch. We really didn’t talk about it. That was a stunt crotch. I don’t think I touched his crotch. Movie magic.
CraveOnline: Which was harder to negotiate, the crotch proximity or the boob grabbing with Jenna Fischer?
Will Ferrell: Well, the boob grabbing. That was ad-libbed. I just thought, “This will be fun, I’m just going to do it,” and 80 takes later. . . I had to get it right. And, it remained in the movie.
CraveOnline: Did you and Heder know each other before or did the rapport happen as soon as you met?
Will Ferrell: It was instantaneous. We met in the parking lot of Pickwick Ice Rink in
CraveOnline: Did you ask him to do Napoleon Dynamite?
Will Ferrell: No, I would never even entertain that thought because I think he probably gets bombarded with that request.
CraveOnline: Now that you did learn to skate, do you love it or hate it?
Will Ferrell: He loves it. I don’t hate it but I haven’t skated since the movie. But, he’s only skated once. He’s a big talker. He was like, “I’m going to skate all the time.”
CraveOnline: Can you tell us something about Jon that we would not know?
Will Ferrell: Let me see. Jon has a twin brother. Did you know that?
CraveOnline: Yeah.
Will Ferrell: Oh, shoot. Well, his twin brother is really mean. Jon’s nice, but this guy, he scares me. He’s the evil one. And, he would come to set and he wouldn’t even talk to me. He’d just sit across the room and go [does an evil laugh]. I was like, “What is he doing?” and Jon was like, “That’s just my evil twin brother, don’t worry about it.” So, that’s something about Jon.
CraveOnline: When you get a script, do you immediately try to find the scene where you get to take off as many of your clothes as you possibly can?
Will Ferrell: No. I actually hope that there isn’t. In this one, I kind of do a version of it with the tattoo thing, which I thought was really funny that you reveal this stupid life story through tattoos. But, we got to make some crazy, funny tattoos. That was amazing. And, in fact, we were just laughing that Jimmy has no sense of the fact that there’s this gross guy with his shirt off. He’s just wrapped in the story, like “Really, wow, cool. What’s that one?”
CraveOnline: Did you keep the Jon Heder tattoo on for a while?
Will Ferrell: That was the funniest thing. The make-up tattoos are so real looking and they last for a good couple of days, so I would forget. On the weekends, I’d have these weird tattoos. My wife would be like, “Oh, gross, what is that?” “It’s just a wolf. I’m the lone wolf.”
CraveOnline: So, the spandex skater costumes vs. the elf suit. Compare and contrast.
Will Ferrell: Well, they were very similar. The elfin tights were actually quite functional. A lot of times, in that movie, it was very cold where we were filming, so I was actually thankful to have them. The lycra suits, I was thankful to have them in a different sense, just for the character, because they were funny looking.
CraveOnline: How much input did you guys have on your costumes?
Will Ferrell: We had a little bit. Julie Weiss, who’s the wardrobe designer is kind of a mad genius, in a way. She’d be like, “I found this leather jacket in the hatchback of my neighbor’s car. Try it on.” You’d be like, “Oh, it’s perfect.” “I knew it! You’re going to wear that today.” She really designed these amazing [costumes]. She would call me on the phone and ask me things like, “What would your character keep in a duffle bag?” “I don’t know yet. I haven’t even thought about it.” She was like, “I see you as a cross between Steven Tyler and . . .” this person or that person. But, yeah, in terms of the skater stuff, she totally designed all that. The first time I saw him in his outfit, I was really jealous. I was like, “Aw, you’re a peacock. Of course. You get a gloved hand and everything. I’m only fire.”
CraveOnline: You have a skate chase on dry land. How hard was that to do?
Will Ferrell: That was really hard. That was the first two days of filming, all of that chase and we hadn't really worked out being on those skates at all.
CraveOnline: So it was on real skates?
Will Ferrell: No, it was like a piece of wood that was painted silver on the side so it looked like a blade but it was still only about that much thickness that we were running around on. And it was the craziest way to begin a movie I've ever [had]. You felt really beat up after those first few days of all that physical stuff, but it was fun.
CraveOnline: How important is the hair of the character?
Will Ferrell: Very few of us have a job where you can get paid to come up with a crazy hairstyle. So it's always fun if you can add that extra dimension of your look and hair is a huge part of that.
CraveOnline: Did you have to train for this like you were doing a real sports movie?
Will Ferrell: We worked with this woman, Sarah Kawahara and she's like the big time skating choreographer, to the point where some of the other coaches who were former pros, actually you could see them get nervous around her. She does all the Disney on Ice, everything. You have these coaches who really wanted us to [get good]. In your mind, you'd be like, "I nailed that" and they were like, "Better. You're gonna get there. Yeah. Make sure you point your toe." And the director would be like, "Looks fine." They were almost like, "Don't tell them that." But it was intense.
CraveOnline: Some of those tricks must have had you on wires, right?
Will Ferrell: I flew at the end but that actually was insane. We were like 100 feet up in the air above all these people. I was like, "I hope these don't break."
CraveOnline: One of the biggest laughs is when they show the Korean film of the trick gone wrong. Since that wasn’t one of your jokes, how did you view it?
Will Ferrell: We never got to see it [on the set]. It wasn't mocked up so we just had to react to what we thought it would look like. We both thought it was super funny when we got to see it.
CraveOnline: Can you make any sport funny?
Will Ferrell: I think I could except for maybe lawn bowling.
CraveOnline: How about curling?
Will Ferrell: Curling, well, that’s pretty funny in itself. I watched a lot of curling this Winter Olympics. I think the
CraveOnline: All of your movies are distinctly Will Ferrell movies but the characters are all different. How hard has it been to make them all distinct?
Will Ferrell: So far it hasn’t been. I’ve just been able to kind of find it but I do often think, am I just going to run out of ideas? So far that’s kind of a challenge and I’m glad you feel that way because I sometimes wonder if I’m making them different enough.
CraveOnline: When did you know you could be funny?
Will Ferrell: I kind of probably had the first real kind of idea in high school when I would write these little skits for assemblies and a couple friends who’d perform in front of the whole school. Then we got asked to do things for assemblies and I thought, "Oh, okay." But I think the first moment, I wrote a play in fourth grade, this was a play called Beat the Clock. It was a game show and it was a comedy. The joke was I had a pillow, I was supposed to be a fat person. I had a pillow and I had to go through this obstacle course. I came out, went through the tube, and I came out and got stuck and I had lost my pillow and was skinny. And the whole fourth grade class thought it was so funny, I was like, "Wow, maybe I’m funny." In other words, it was an idea that I thought was a comedic premise and it actually achieved its goal, so it made me think, "Oh, maybe I can make people laugh."
CraveOnline: Are you funny at home?
Will Ferrell: Yes and no. I think you kind of have to shut it down just for the time that you need to be funny but yeah, I have fun at home just goofing around. I’m trying to make my son laugh these days, but it’s tough. He’s hard. He just stares at me a lot like, "What are you doing? It's not working. Come on, give me a little more." He's very discriminating. It's very funny, but it's all the cliches. It just adds another aspect to your life that you never thought would be possible.
CraveOnline: Did you talk to Helen Mirren after the Oscar song you did?
Will Ferrell: No, I didn't get to.
CraveOnline: You seem to stay in character flawlessly. What does it take to make you crack up like we occasionally see in your outtakes?
Will Ferrell: A lot of times it just hits me like a ton of bricks the absurdity of what we're doing or what we're saying and that'll be when I lose it. But it's hard to kind of make me break. And then also, if you're really enjoying the other actors that you're working with it almost heals itself, but for the most part I don't normally have a problem with that.
CraveOnline: What's coming up for you?
Will Ferrell: I just started filming another sports comedy about the
