MOVIES

Funny reflections: Will Ferrell talks about comedy

Calm, cool, the star of 'Semi-Pro' says no more sports movies for a while

By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM CRITIC
Friday, February 29, 2008

There's absolutely nothing exuberant about Will Ferrell in the flesh. He's a becalming presence, a gentle giant with mint-blue eyes that defy their close-set beadiness by twinkling like they did in his 2003 comedy "Elf," with family-friendly warmth, though with a glint of PG mischief.

You can see it, all right: This man can be a naughty boy.

Ferrell's tall. His hair is a nest of tight curls, some graying around his face. He's spiffy in a basketball sweat suit zipped to the neckline. He could be shooting hoops, as he does, with comical aching pains, in his new sports spoof "Semi-Pro." But not today. He's nursing a slight cold. And it's raining outside.

Ferrell, 40, ran an unbroken streak from being the highest-paid cast member of "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s to a marquee star of hip, male-centric comedies that use heat-seeking parody to lambast cultural folly, be it the campy vainglory of haute fashion or the bloated, totally unwarranted narcissism of television anchormen.

But for all his on-screen excitability — he's often half-naked and he's often yelling, spittle spraying — Ferrell is the calmest victim of a journalist's interrogation. Naughty, but really, really nice.

Austin American-Statesman: Your comedies have spoofed NASCAR, figure skating, now basketball. It seems a bit much. Any more sports parodies for you?

Will Ferrell: No, no. We're done. I guess never say never, but I'd be more apt to do a shot-for-shot remake of "Chariots of Fire" and play it straight, yet with comedic actors. I'd rather do something like that. Do it deadpan and play it for comedy.

I ask because I sense a real audience fatigue with these broad spoofs. It's sort of become, "Now it's basketball. What next — BMX?"

I knew that doing this movie would lead to this line of questioning. I have a pang of wishing "Semi-Pro" was separated by another movie. So I probably won't be rushing out to do another sports comedy. The audience being tired of the films will become apparent. Another journalist said he heard someone say "It always looks like Will Ferrell is going to jump the shark, but then you show up and he doesn't." I still try to think that within these things we're making them different and providing things that you're surprised to see. My next film, the one (longtime writing collaborator) Adam McKay and John C. Reilly came up with, is completely different. "Step Brothers" is not a spoof on anything. It's our version of a straight-on living-room comedy.

Film comedy seems to be in great shape these days. There are a few groups of very ambitious young men — Luke and Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Jack Black, and on and on — who are keeping the scene robust.

It's great that studios are feeling like it's a really viable genre or group of people and are making these kinds of movies. I think a film like "Anchorman," which broke a lot of rules and did a lot of crazy things, opened the door for Judd (Apatow) to direct "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and that led to "Knocked Up" and it keeps branching off. We really have the audience to thank. And they're thankful that we're getting away from the pattern of what used to be one funny character driving a premise and everyone else playing the straight man who goes, "This person's crazy!"

Yeah, now it's very much ensemble goofiness. What about the notion that these comedies use the same guys in every film? "Semi-Pro" is almost a roll call of hot funnymen, from you and Will Arnett to Andy Richter and Rob Corddry. And what about the women? Where are they? Are there no funny women? They should do a chick comedy in the same outrageous vein of your films.

Unfortunately, that's just the marketplace. But someone will figure that out and break through it. I know Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have a movie coming out ("Baby Mama"). Adam and I have talked about writing a script for women, where you don't have any really funny male characters but just funny female characters. But back to the question about it being all the same guys, I think it's a really unfair observation, because Martin Scorsese uses Robert De Niro but nobody complains that he's using him again.

That's one actor, though. He's not re-using, say, Joe Pesci repeatedly with De Niro.

Well, in "Goodfellas" and "Casino" he did.

But he's not using the same eight people again and again. And he hasn't used De Niro, let alone Pesci, in a very long time.

Well ... what was I going to say? I forgot.

You're a prime example of a comic who earns laughs from doing the strangest and most extreme antics. Pure shamelessness and courage seem mandatory for the really successful comedian. Would you agree?

It's a huge part. I made a promise to myself when I was on stage with (improv group) the Groundlings in Los Angeles that if I were able to achieve any sort of success and sustain it for any period of time that I would never back down from doing something audacious as long as it's funny. You have to be fearless and courageous. It's why we all love Borat so much. It's the most fearless performance ever. And you're watching it, like, "He's actually doing that!" And you totally respect it.

Like Borat, you're able to use your body and awkward physicality for comic payoffs, from jogging naked in "Old School" to scampering around in your underwear in "Talladega Nights." Was it difficult getting to the point of exploiting your body as a comedic weapon?

I'm not an exhibitionist by any means. But if you challenge me to do something I will show you that it's not that big a deal to get naked in front of you. So when I was on "SNL" and it was written that somebody takes their shirt off and runs through the scene, I'd just think, "That's my job."

Part of what's funny is the shape you're in. You are not, frankly, ripped, though you're not fat, either. But people do comment on your flab and chest hair. At this point, would your agent even allow you to get buffed up and ruin this gift?

I don't think there's any fear of that. People don't believe it, but I really do exercise. (Laughing) It's just hard.