Most Will Ferrell interviews turn into comedy riffs. Maybe you have to be there, but we’ll take our chances reprinting his improv’s in print. Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play The Other Guys, desk cops who have to step up and be the action heroes. Ferrell didn’t take it too seriously at a press conference.
Q: The movie talks a lot about partners and having each other's back. Is it the same in comedy?
Will Ferrell: No. I feel like it's more fun to be really cut throat on a set and not look out for each other. That provides a certain tension and it makes for a horrible work environment but boy does it pop on screen. Studios love it because we don't serve food. There's no craft services. There's no creature comfort that most actors [are used to].There's no insurance. No. It really is kind of the same approach in terms of whether it's a drama or a comedy. We both just have the same philosophy of treating the character as if it's real, be earnest in every moment and we're never winking at the camera. Since we had the same philosophy it was very easy to improvise with each other.
Q: Did you fall back on the plot of a cop movie to keep things focused?
Will Ferrell: I'm not sure there was a plot but go ahead. This is probably the most plot driven movie we've done.
Q: Was the choice of the Prius intentional for environmental awareness?
Will Ferrell: I think the choice of the Prius was more a very sensible car and it was a very Allen Gamble type vehicle. I think in the earlier drafts of the script, Mark's character drove a Dodge Challenger or something like that, a total muscle car. It was a nice contrast to what I drove.
Q: Who’s idea was it to have you sing with the locals in the bar?
Will Ferrell: As Adam was working on the script, you could just say text me any random ideas you have and one of them was what if Terry and Allen were at an Irish bar and in the scene where information has to be given out it's weekly folk singing night and one of the things Allen loved to do was sing Irish songs at a bar. I sent it to Adam and he wrote back, "going into the script."
Q: How does working on material for Funny or Die feed into the creative process when it comes to radical movie like this?
Will Ferrell: That’s just a really kind of sandbox for disposable fun ideas, and we get to just play around with and have fun and not think about it again.
Q: Clearly the moral of the story is to stay true to yourself and embrace your inner pimp. Have any tips on keeping the pimp hand strong?
Will Ferrell: You can't let your bitches get away with stuff at the same time. I mean what's the point of being a pimp? It's one of those questions that can never fully be answered.
Q: Whose trailer was the party trailer?
Will Ferrell: There was a trailer called The Party Trailer. It was I think towed away after the second day of filming because there was a lot of crazy stuff going on in there. There was human trafficking going on. There was a crystal meth lab in there. Yeah, it was not good. It was not good.
Q: Is there anything else?
Will Ferrell: Is there something crazy that happened? Is there a crazy story that happened between us? Well, I remember there was this one day where Mark and Eva and I are sitting around. Michael wasn’t there. He said, “Let’s kill a guy.” I’m like, “Keaton would be up for this.” We called up Keaton and he’s like, “Tell me when and where.” We all met underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Before each day of filming Adam usually would gather us together along with the crew and we'd all put our hands in the center and say, “On three, lets make some money. 1, 2, 3 lets make some money!” Then we'd quietly and angrily go about our work.
Q: Was it bittersweet to make out with Eva Mendes but she’s dressed like an old woman?
Will Ferrell: Yeah, it was strange. It was strange to kiss Eva Mendes or try to at least. For me, in a way that I can’t believe it’s happening to me. That’s what I meant. But I make my wife wear a wig and older woman’s garments, when we pleasure each other.
Q: What is your favorite scene in the movie?
Will Ferrell: I’m going to have to say definitely Eva and Mark and I at the dinner table for the first time discussing our relationship. Especially just the combination of Eva’s earnestness and Mark’s just general dumbfounded reaction to the fact that all of this could be possible. Then my character’s nonchalance about it as well. That was a scene that we could have filmed all day long. The prior scene where we’re going over the information in the living room and Eva first walks in, that’s a genuine reaction from Mark when he’s laughing going, “Seriously, who is that?” That’s not acting.
Q: What’s your favorite cop movie?
Will Ferrell: Turner and Hooch.
Q: Growing up or when you became an actor, did you always want to play a cop? Was doing the comedy version the way for you to do it?
Will Ferrell: No, I can’t say that it was. I mean, I did as a kid, I’d walk around with a pair of nunchucks on my side, which is not really law enforcement related. I guess like a martial arts thing. I built a jail in my closet and I would incarcerate my family from time to time.
Q: Were the nunchucks playing cop or just crime fighting?
Will Ferrell: I guess it was. I guess it was like a vigilante justice, like a guardian angel type thing. I was six years old. Six to nine, those three years. They were rolling pins. Nunchucks made out of rolling pins.
Q: Really?
Will Ferrell: No.
Q: Have you had any real encounters with police?
Will Ferrell: I grew up, I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the mean streets of Irvine, California. I once got a bicycle ticket from the Irvine PD for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign and my other encounter with law enforcement is getting pulled over in Los Angeles in my Prius doing fifty in a thirty five. So that's it for me.
Q: Will you let your kids watch this movie? Do they like watching you play awesome action heroes?
Will Ferrell: You know, my six-year-old is just starting to figure out what it is, like he just this summer leaned over to me and was like, “By the way, dad. I know what you do. I know you’re in movies, just so you know.” But he still doesn’t really know. This movie’s probably still a little too old for him probably.
Q: Has he seen Elf?
Will Ferrell: No, no. I think he saw it when he was like two or three years old and he started crying when I had to float away on the iceberg. And I said, “You keep watching it. You quit crying. This is about Christmas. This is about joy so shut up.” Yeah, it’s a weird thing. If it comes up naturally and they want to see something, but I never want it to be like, “Take a look at this. You recognize that guy? Pretty good stuff, right? Let’s replay it again.”
Q: How did you and Adam get together with Mark Wahlberg and Michael Keaton for this?
Will Ferrell: Well, basically the three of us went to dinner. Adam and I had talked about for years the idea of working with Mark in a comedy and that we found him not only to be such a good actor but really funny at times in some of the roles that he’s done. So anyway, that was kind of the basic. We all sat down, had a dinner and thought about would you ever want to do a movie with us? Mark was like great and we talked about doing this and Adam came up with this idea of these guys who are literally the other guys on a force that no one cares about, that no one wants to listen to and kind of have their chance to step forward and prove that they can actually do something.
Q: Did you have any tough stunts you got to do yourself?
Will Ferrell: Keep in mind, I had to run out of there pretty quickly. I have to run. I have to duck. I have to do things too. No, I’m just saying.
Q: Was it nice to go back to San Diego for Comic Con after Anchorman?
Will Ferrell: It really has been. It is great to be back in the whale's vagina.
Question: Do you have any funny Comi-Con story?
Will Ferrell: I was here with William Shatner about five years ago and he travels in his own motor-home. We were doing a panel, and obviously I love Star Trek and he's associated with that and we were like, “Lets take your motor-home and go south of the border, lets do it.” So we ended up, we got a bunch of peyote and we ended up down near Mulege which is the tip of Baja and we were there and we were like, “Lets throw our watches into the sea. Lets throw all our worldly possessions in,” and we spent about three weeks down there, just me and Bill Shatner. So that happened.
Q: Are there any Funny or Die skits you’d like to make a movie out of?
Will Ferrell: Forehead Titties.
