Celebrity Interview
Will Ferrell: Journeyman of Comedy
Impersonate W. George Bush and Robert Goulet on the same night? No sweat. Play a grown man who thinks he’s one of Santa’s elves? Piece of cake. A frat boy who never grew up, a pompous anchorman, a redneck race car driver, a macho male figure skating champion? All in a day’s work for Will Ferrell. Plug him in anywhere, and he is going to be funny. Really, really funny.
With comic hits such as Elf, Old School, Anchorman, and Talledega Nights, it’s all about how fearless Ferrell can be on screen—that, and his willingness to expose himself, literally and figuratively, on a regular basis.
When Hollywood.com asked him whether he was contractually obligated to appear in his underwear—or in the buff—in every one of his films, Ferrell quipped, “I committed a crime that I can’t talk about when I was in high school, and it’s part of this work release program that I have to honor with the state of California. I think that I only have three more films that I have to do that and then I don’t have to do it anymore. So rest assured.”
How It All Began
Ferrell’s life started out fairly ordinary. Born John William Ferrell, July 16, 1967, to Lee Ferrell, a keyboardist for The Righteous Brothers, and Kay, a teacher, young Will grew up in the relative normalcy of Irvine, Calif., where, he’s said, “I wasn’t beaten up by anyone; there was a really low crime rate. There was really nothing to do except think of funny things.”
Throughout most of his formative school years, however, he wasn’t necessarily known as a class clown—he was more a scholar and athlete. He enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he studied sports broadcasting (shades of Anchorman to come). He was also a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity (shades of Old School). But after graduating in 1990, Ferrell quickly realized a Sports Information degree really wasn’t his bag, and he developed his improvisation skills as a member of the Los Angeles comedy group The Groundlings.
The SNL Years
Then Ferrell got his big break, joining his Groundlings buddy Chris Kattan on Saturday Night Live in 1995, having been chosen over good friend Steve Carell. It took Ferrell a good year to get rolling on the show, but once he did, his time on SNL gave the show new life.
Along with his impersonations of Bush, Goulet, Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, among others, Ferrell also had a slate of original characters that have gone down in the annals of SNL history as some of its best, including fictional Blue Öyster Cult member and cowbell player Gene Frenkle; music teacher Marty Culp, Spartan cheerleader Craig Buchanan, and night clubber Steve Butabi.
During his SNL run, Ferrell also started cracking people up on the big screen as well, making cameo appearances in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Zoolander and co-starring in three SNL spinoff films. A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar and The Ladies Man. While all those films flopped, Ferrell had to cut his teeth somehow.
The Frat Pack
After seven years at SNL, Ferrell left the show in 2002 to pursue movies full time—and joined what the media refers to as "The Frat Pack.” The term recalls Ferrell’s first huge hit, Old School, in which Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson play former college buddies who end up forming a fraternity for the local college losers. Along with Ferrell, Vaughn and Wilson, the Frat Pack also includes Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell and Owen Wilson, who all pop up continually in each other’s movies. Ancillary members might also include writer/directors Adam McKay (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby); Todd Phillips (Old School and Starsky & Hutch); and Judd Apatow (The 40 Year-Old Virgin).
But according to Ferrell the Frat Pack simply doesn’t exist. “We run into each other on occasions and we all like each other’s films, I guess,” he says, “but there isn’t some big funny restaurant or bar where we all hang out. At least, if there is, they haven’t invited me. I wasn’t in You, Me and Dupree, Owen’s last movie, and none of them were in Talladega Nights with me, and actually, nobody gives a shit.”
The Present and the Future
Ferrell has flexed his acting muscles a bit in recent years, veering away from comedy and earning two Golden Globe nominations for his effort. The first was for his delightfully quirky performance as a meek IRS agent in Stranger Than Fiction and the other for his Nazi-loving musical scribe in The Producers.
But with this year’s hit comedy Blades of Glory, Ferrell once again did what he does best—he got naked and, in this case, skated on some thin ice. Coming up next for Ferrell is another sports spoof, Semi Pro, in which he plays Jackie Moon, the owner-coach-player of the American Basketball Association’s Flint Michigan Tropics, who rallies his teammates to make their NBA dreams come true (in theaters February 2008).
Ferrell has also jumped onboard the Internet bandwagon with his website, www.funnyordie.com, a venture he created along with writers McKay and Apatow. As an alternative to YouTube.com, FunnyorDie.com offers choice videos made by a wide variety of users, including Ferrell’s own short The Landlord, in which a 2-year-old (McKay’s daughter, Pearl) curses Ferrell out for being late with the rent. It’s become an Internet classic, with nearly 49 million page views, according to the website.
Lucky for us, Ferrell’s very content with his job: "I’d much rather be in a comedy… I love goofing around, but I don’t feel the need to act the clown in private…Although I confess that I do sometimes put together outfits to annoy my wife."
Ah, to be a fly on the wall…
by Kit Bowen
