The idea of sitting around and having a
conversation with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly seems like a really good idea
to me. So naturally, when I did it while visiting the set of STEP
BROTHERS, I was not disappointed (read our full set visit report here!).
I’ve been a fan of Mr. Reilly’s work for a
very long time, from WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?, to BOOGIE NIGHTS all the way
to WALK HARD. Hell, I even got a chance to see him perform as Dewey Cox in
Hollywood one night, the man is just cool. As for Mr. Ferrell, I’ve also
enjoyed meeting, although I think my favorite Will Ferrell moment has to do with
“more cowbells”. But from TALLADEGA NIGHTS to ELF, he has offered up
some damn funny moments in his career.
When they sat with all us crazy journalists, many
of whom were in black (I usually am), Will was very pleased we got the memo.
The two gentlemen had a wonderful connection. They are very funny together
when they are just being themselves. So check out the conversation below,
and keep an eye out for STEP BROTHERS on July 25th.
Will Ferrell and John C.
Reilly
Will Ferrell: I want to make sure the online
press only wears black today [Laughter]. Oh good, you guys got the memo.
[Will] the Star Wars sweat pants, are you
enjoying wearing them?
John C. Reilly: Pajamas
WF: Pajamas, yeah.
What happened to your head? (Referring to ice
pack strapped to his head)
JCR: It is for the scene. We got in a fight in
the movie and we are in the recovery stage right here.
Was this a drum accident?
JCR: No, we have a big fight on the lawn and I
hit Will with a baseball bat.
WF: It was a simultaneous knock out.
JCR: He hits me with a driver, golf club.
WF: (says in unison with John) golf club.
What did you guys do to the dry wall?
WF: We slammed each other into it. This is all a
fight over who touched John’s drum set... Whether I did.
Did you?
WF: I would say I didn’t, but you’ll have to
watch the movie.
JCR: I have forensic evidence. However, we have
no witnesses.
Does your character ever allow Will’s
character back into the beat laboratory [where he keeps his drums]?
JCR: He's allowed to go back in there eventually,
but never to touch the drums even when we become very close friends.
WF: I can just hover in there, that’s it.
Can you talk about how working on TALLADEGA
NIGHTS possibly led to a more shorthand, comedic sort of thing?
JCR: Yeah, well that’s where we developed the
hand signals.
WF: It is like a 300 page, Morse code like
booklet that we pass out to the crew, to visitors, you guys will get it later on
your departure.
JCR: The movie is virtually indecipherable if you
don’t have this book too, so the studio coughed up the cost to provide one to
every audience member.
WF: We are going to hand them out at the theater
as well to decipher the film, but we think it will be a cool novelty item 20
years from now.
JCR: We were friends before we did Talladega so
we had some type of shorthand before that even, right?
WF: Yeah. This whole, it is funny, its been an
interesting movie in that we kind of started out with a bunch of physical things
and we hadn’t actually done scenes yet. So in terms of the way we
responded with each other’s characters, we were almost figuring that out a
little after the fact. Which I think would have been a lot harder if we hadn’t
known each other that well.
JCR: A lot of the shorthand in this movie too
comes from the fact that we all kind of figured out the story together, Will and
Adam [McKay] and I, so we all told each other stories from our past.
WF: And put it in the script, so by the time we
filmed it ...
JCR: By the time it got in the script we all knew
where the stories had come from and what the intent was.
I know you guys had this concept back when you
made TALLADEGA NIGHTS, so where did this idea come from originally?
JCR: It wasn’t that far back was it?
WF: No, we just had the idea of trying to work
together again, but in terms of a specific idea it wasn’t until meeting back
in Los Angeles and pitching a bunch of things and then it was really, we had
settled on two or three options and I think Adam called us the next day and said
“Here’s a totally brand new idea that we hadn’t thought about” and it
was this one and we were, “Oh”.
How did the writing work?
WF: Actually, I shouldn’t even say this - we
farmed it out to China. There are a group of writers who work, they are called
the Omega group and they are pretty close to our voice, there were some cultural
things that were slightly different.
JCR: All the script notes came from India. And
they would just talk to the writers in China.
WF: It was a very belabored process, but we
didn’t have to do any of it, which was great.
Do any of your friends make appearances, for
example the people you have worked with in other films?
JCR: When you say “friends” ...
I don't want to drop any names ...
JCR: People we don’t really like that we call
our “friends”?
WF: I'm trying to think if any of the friends
that you have on your list would be in this movie. There is, once again, an
ensemble feel to this film.
JCR: But it is a smaller cast than TALLADEGA so
there is less room for people to come in.
WF: There are cameos of other comedic
actors that we all love and know.
Can you guys talk about working with Richard
Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen?
JCR: I have always admired both of them. I did a
movie with Mary Steenburgen [WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?] and Richard I have
always admired too, so I was thrilled. I wasn’t really part of the decision to
get them in the movie because it was happening when I was out of town this
summer but I was thrilled.
WF: Yeah, Richard Jenkins was kind of a name we
talked about a long time when we were writing the script, about how he would be
perfect guy to play John’s dad and Mary kind of came later only because we
didn’t think she would want to play my mom. She’s so young looking, but she
was game. They are not only great actors, but great comedic actors in the style
that we like, which is played as real as possible and to let the circumstance be
the comedy of it.
In the scene that we just watched, it appeared
Richard was the hard ass of the two parents and Mary pretends like she is but
then she kind of softens up.
JCR: You can’t make too many assumptions about
what you see because we are literally completely changing stuff up not doing the
script anymore. We are making a whole big palette of things to choose from and
they both, Richard is really upset because we just got in a fight in this scene
but he is by no means the hard ass in this movie, both parents...
WF: Trade off at times.
JCR: The reason that they are able to stay where
they are at in their lives is because both parents let it go on.
Can you talk about the freedom of working in R
rated environment and not having to hold back.
WF: We just kind of both came from doing R movies
before this, but still I’ve never gotten to work with Adam in this setting. It
is great to not have to edit yourself in that way just because Anchorman and
Talladega we were always like “Is that too much? Do we need to find an alt for
that?” That being said, we still find ourselves trying to do a couple takes
that are a little less stocked with the F word just in case we have F word
overload. We are like addicts who finally get to say bad words.
Do you think the environment is changing at
all in comedy that films are being made that are R rated?
WF: In regards to comedy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
think with the success of like every summer there has been a couple R rated
comedies that have done so well I think it is so nice to see that people are
turning out to see these movies, and it doesn’t seem to be as big a stigma
with the studios anymore. You know PG-13 used to guarantee a certain box office
success and I’m sure they could pull up the statistics to still support that
in a way, but it is nice that these other really creative movies that also
happen to be R rated are getting a nice shot.
JCR: You know the cable TV effect too, you know,
watch Bill Maher or Jon Stewart, these guys say basically whatever they want
even if they bleep it out it used to be they couldn’t even say it to get
bleeped. I think that is part of it and I think also just so much of media in
general is PG like regular radio and regular TV. It is so controlled for so long
and I think people have a craving for the truth, or like honest expression and
people swear more often than they did, at least it seems like they do.
WF: It is funny when you get comments back like
“That was rated R? Why was it rated R? It didn’t seem that bad.” So I
think it is a comment on the rating system as well.
JCR: There is something too about the background
of a lot of the people who are doing these kind of R rated comedies now, I know
- this is probably true of the Groundlings. I don’t know them, but I’ve
heard Adam say... I say, “Man, we go really dark sometimes with the language
or the scenarios we just let our minds go wherever. So that’s the rule of
improv, is not about limiting where you are going to go with it, you follow it
all the way to the conclusion you are heading toward and that’s what he said
“Oh man, at UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) or whatever, there isn’t a show
that goes by without abortion or anal sex or whatever. These are the taboo
subjects that come up in comedy. That’s what people go for so it is not so
much that we want to be more racy for that reason. We just start improving and
coming up with crazy scenarios and end up doing stuff that is more on the edge,
and it is not so family friendly.
WF: Whether or not we ultimately have it in the
movie, it allows you to explore and then come back to another area.
We were talking to someone earlier who said
the comedy in this is in general darker. Is that true is maybe a little harder
in concept?
WF: I'm not the best one to ask because I never
understand. I will watch a movie that is quote unquote dark and not get the
qualification of what is dark and what is not.
JCR: It doesn’t seem dark to me [laughs]. It is
about two guys who are sort of stuck in their childhood, you know. So it has a
certain innocence to it, but I guess we do swear and stuff so if that is dark,
that doesn’t seem dark to me. What is darker to me is a movie about
dismemberment and taking people hostage and torturing them.
There is none of that in this film?
JCR: Dismemberment? No. Hostages? No.
WF: No, I don’t think so.
Well, you still have a few more days on the
shoot so you could.
WF: Yeah, we could add that in.
Can you talk about leaving the nest
yourselves? Were you the types to drag your feet?
JCR: No, I couldn’t wait to get out.
WF: I could totally relate to this. I lived at
home for three years after college. I had the benefit of a very patient mother
who was like alright…
JCR: You had a cozier situation, I had five
brothers and sisters so by the time I could at all get out I wanted my own
space, which I never had at home.
Was that right at 18?
JCR: Yeah.
Do you guys plan to work together again?
WF: We are probably going to do a musical
together. Fiddler II.
JCR: Hello Dollies or Two Dollies.
Maybe you were just doing a bit at a press
conference, but you had mentioned doing Anchorman II with like foreign
correspondents. Is that a reality at all?
WF: No
JCR: Sounds like a bit.
WF: Not as of yet, no.
Are you going to do LAND OF THE LOST as an
action comedy or straight comedy or maybe something more serious?
WF: It is going to be very serious; it is going
to be kind of on the tone of THE ENGLISH PATIENT but with dinosaurs, horribly
frighteningly realistic dinosaurs. In fact we only survive for 12 minutes in the
movie, the rest is mostly just action shots of dinosaurs communicating through
sleestaks. It is going to be more like a nature documentary.
Is it going to be a parody of a spoof of?
WF: It is going to be kind of hopefully like
Jurassic Park, it is not going to be a spoof in terms of the look it is going to
be as real as possible and hopefully funny.
JCR: Will Ferrell reacting to real dinosaurs that
sounds funny to me.
Let me know what you think. Send questions
and comments to jimmyo@joblo.com.
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12:24PM on 05/29/2008