Will Ferrell, Vol. II

0:01Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports.

0:50Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro Plans. I had one guy go, I don't care what they say. I think you're hilarious And I said, well, thank you, but what are they saying? What he's like what no you said. I don't care what they say Well, who's they he's like, oh, no, uh No, I didn't mean I mean I didn't mean it that way. No, let's sit down talk about it. No, I want to break it down Who's they? Give me the list Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

1:53you're enjoying these podcasts, but remember to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Before we get to Will, I'll remind you guys, if you're a Patreon subscriber, you would have seen this already. Through the magic of time and space, it's early access only on Patreon. Patreon.com slash Happy Say it Confused. We post all of our episodes early over there with bonus content, access to autographed merch, access to our live events. Check it out, Patreon.com slash Happy Say it Confused. Okay, let's talk Will Ferrell. I could talk about Will Ferrell until the end of time because he is, he truly might be my favorite comic performer of all time.

2:28No one makes me laugh like Will Ferrell, and I know I'm not alone in that. And I'm so pleased to say that Will is exactly who you want him to be, on camera, off camera. There's really not much difference. He's funny. He's sweet. He is just light in this universe. I've had the privilege of talking to Will many times over my years at MTV. he has done the podcast once before but it was with Reese Witherspoon like about a year and a half ago I want to say for their film You're Cordially Invited so this is actually his solo Happy Say I Confused podcast debut and he more than lived up to my expectations we reminisce about our shared history but more importantly some of the greatest hits of Will's career including of course Anchorman and Talladega Nights and Step Brothers too many to list of course his SNL days so many fantastic stories in this and of course needless to say he is hysterical in this conversation check out his new show, it is called The Hawk it adds to the pantheon of great Will Ferrell characters, it adds to the pantheon of great Will Ferrell sports characters this is kind of a bad boy of golf very funny stuff and it re-teams him with some familiar folks like Luke Wilson like Chris Parnell, like Molly Shannon well worth checking out on Netflix check it out right now, The Hawk But for now, enjoy this.

3:45I'm so happy this finally happened. Will Ferrell front and center alone on Happy Sad Confused. Enjoy. Will! Hi Josh. It's so good to see you man. Great to see you too. This is your first solo outing on Happy Sad Confused on the podcast. It is, yeah. We dropped Reese Witherspoon. You were on last with her. I needed you all to myself today. I know. Yeah, I mean, look, I really enjoyed visiting with you with Reese, but... Big butt. But this just... Yeah, now I'm just... Now it's just me. Now it's just me. Yeah, you're free. And you got the dress code. Thank you for... Very specific. We're going to talk about a lot of things.

4:27Most notably, your new show. Well, I love now with podcasts, people are like, oh, what are you going to wear? I'm like... Well, isn't it radio? Yeah. I'm going to wear a T-shirt. It says, Very Stable Genius. Which, if you recall, that was a quote. Yes. From our president. I do remember that. You're a big supporter. You're rooting for the next term, right? Especially in Star Wars font. Everything is better at Star Wars font. Do you have like a funny wardrobe and a normal wardrobe at home that you like? Is there one closet that's like... No, I haven't. My normal wardrobe also is my funny wardrobe.

5:03There's no normal clothing. Yeah, there's no normal. There's constantly... I think it started in high school with my mother going, Are you meaning to wear that? And I was like, what? That shirt with those shorts and those shoes. This is an intentional choice that you're making. Your eyes are working. Okay, okay. She would never, that was her version of like, that looks terrible, but she wouldn't discourage. She'd be like, okay. And is it similar now as your wife says? She's like, she's so immune to it. Yeah. Does she ever try to stop you when you go out with one of your like, buddy the elf is going to go to the hockey game?

5:41Does she ever stop you at the door? We'll be like, let's talk about this. And that's why we are a match made in heaven. She encourages, she's like, she'll almost matter, in a matter of fact way say, oh, that's really good. That's a great idea. Yes. That's what you mean. It's very clinical, though. She's not excited by it. She's yes-anding you. Yeah, she's yes-anding. But she was an accomplice for the Buddy the Elf at the hockey game. She agreed with it. She said, this is brilliant. But she was also there sitting next to me. Oh, she's providing the cigs? So there's some, which are candy cigarettes, just so everyone knows.

6:15Great. Thank you.

6:19I was afraid, because I was afraid that the real, the stadium people would kick me, would be like, put those away. You can't have real cigarettes in a stadium. Yeah. So I made sure they were candy. I was thinking ahead. And it fits into Buddy. Did it, we talked, because the last time we talked, it was right after that. Yeah. And you told the famous story that you were offered insane amounts of money to do the elf sequel that you turned down. Yeah. Did this reignite anything? Did the studio come back to you and say, here's even more money? Oh, no. Didn't hear a peep. Really? Yeah. No. Okay. No.

6:57That train has sailed. Okay. But I think for the best. For the best. Yeah. It's a classic. Yeah. Add to the Pantheon, the Hawk. Yes. There it is. Just making sure people know why I'm here. You got the chest tattoo, too. Other than to see you. Of course. You make shows as an excuse to see me. This is very much, this is basically something Lonnie would do. My character, Lonnie Hawkins, the Hawk, for the entire, for probably 87 % of the show, wears a visor that says his nickname on it because he is he lives in mortal fear that someone won't recognize he needs constant relevancy yeah gotta stay on top he wants to make sure people know he's a he's a pro golfer and his name is the hawk he's the the bad boy of yeah he's a bad boy golf is that an oxymoron because as i recall the one that comes to mind is john daly way back yeah right he was the guy there's there's very few of them there's and there are very few of them there there's really not, and it's kind of one of the points of emphasis of the show, is Jimmy Tatro plays Lance, my son, and he represents the current golfer today.

8:14Right. Fitness focused. They're really into nutrition and training, and they wear monochromatic clothes. And they're very careful people because they have all the weight of all this sponsorship. And so the PGA is devoid of personality right now. Right. In a way. But I say that with love because the PGA was also a part of our show. So thank you, PGA. Yeah, that's with love. I say it with love. You suck, but I mean it in the best possible. But to their credit, they were like, you know what? Have some fun at our expense. And so Lonnie represents what in my head were golfers in the 70s. Like seeking a cigarette in between holes, wearing loud clothes, having a few cocktails after playing.

9:13At least I don't even know if that really existed. But in my mind, you know. Your headcanon that's there, yeah. The Arnold Palmers and the Jack Nicklases and the Lee Trevino's and talking smack to each other. And so that's kind of the collision course of what our show's about. It fits very much in the pantheon of your great characters. Because when I think of like the great comedy characters in your career, which there are many, they're kind of two buckets. It's kind of like the sweet Ernest. You know, there's the Frank, the Tank. There's the Buddy, the Elf. Outnumbered significantly, I would say, by the ferocious narcissists.

9:46Right. clueless assholes that if any, virtually any other actor played these roles, like if Daniel Day Lewis is playing the roles you've played, if he's playing Ron Burgundy, it's like, that guy is horrible, I never want to see him again. I remember early days, I was still on Saturday Night Live, I was with my manager, we were kinda doing the rounds with the studios and we had a sit down with a very prominent head of a studio at that time who uh we had this argument and and i stood my ground she was like you know comedy characters have to be likable right and i said you're wrong and everyone went no it's in the book don't say that don't i'm like i've done plenty watch my work on snl i played plenty of people yeah and i had just in fact the previous week's show i'd written a sketch um which i'm pretty sure made it on which was just myself and two kid extra two kid actors and we are um singing happy birthday to their grandmother right on speakerphone but they are not doing it right and i it just builds into me yelling at these children which to your point On paper, the math of that looks horrible.

11:10No. But it played like gangbusters. And I've been given that gift to be able to. That is truly your gift. One of your great gifts. To somehow make that funny and likable, I don't know. I don't know how. Are both of those spectrums equally rewarding? Do you find them both like that note fun to play? I mean, I loved the earnestness of playing Buddy. the kind of obnoxious enthusiasm was so much fun to play at the same time. And I think that through line carries through in a lot of the movies I've done with Mara, like the Daddy's Homes movies, I'm kind of that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, but then it's also just fun to, again, Yell at children.

12:06That's in your comedy 101 class. When in doubt, yell at a small child. The smaller and cuter, the better. Right. If you can. Is it a sign of the times? And punch a baby. I punched a baby in the campaign. I forgot that. Oh, yeah. That was sweet. It was sweet. There should be more punching babies. I punched a baby and we slowed it down slow-mo. Right. Yeah. We see the fists go into the jaw of the baby. It's the best use of CGI. It was fantastic. I remember the gosh Chris Hensche who's also helped create the show and as directed to the episodes Chris was a producer on that movie and that getting that shot it took all day to get the components of that and the AD on that movie was like I don't know why we're doing this is gonna get cut out of the movie you can't punch a baby and I was like yes you can And we're going to show you and sure enough one of the biggest laughs in that movie We'll be right back with more happy sad confused

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15:31how much of your career is related to you being kind of like a frustrated athlete like you were a major athlete growing up thank you a major athlete at university high school in irvine California that never won anything. You average 1.6 points a game. I heard or something right on the basketball team. Yeah. I was the captain. Why did they make you the captain at 1.6 points a game? Because of this. Oh, sorry. Yes. The leadership. The leadership. Yeah. The aura, as the kids say today. The aura. Yeah. I had a lot of aura, a lot of riz back there. Two men talking riz and aura today. Yeah, sports, you know, ever since the moment my amazing mother, Kay, signed me up for something called AYSO Soccer.

16:24This is probably when I'm eight years old, so we're going to say 1975. And she's like, I signed you up for this thing called soccer. I'm like, okay. And I just started playing sports. and was kind of big for my age and was found the team concept of working towards a common goal super satisfying. And I think that is why I love the ensemble. And I love, you know, and a lot of this work is teamwork. whether you're on a film set, shooting a TV show, working on a show like Saturday Night Live, it was as, it was as equally satisfying to be the centerpiece of a sketch, to drive the sketch. It was just as much fun for me to come in and have one line.

17:30I've heard you say that, like that served you well, that you kind of made yourself available to everybody. You're like, yeah, great to put me in the lead, but I'm happy to walk in. 100 % I made I made a point to tell the writers because I could see I could see you know some cast members and it's a natural response would be like wait that's it that's all I'm going to do in the sketch then I don't want to do it and I I was like oh that's that could be a missed opportunity so I made sure I told all the writers like I have no ego about that stuff I will I will I will be an off camera voice for you.

18:06I will record VO. Because I know I can come into a situation and disrupt and leave. And at the very least, I might break everyone. Because I'm going to change it up between dress and air. In fact, there was a sketch that I think someone had written in which it took place it was a beach volleyball match and I don't even I can't remember the premise at all but I literally was someone who every every 30 seconds just said beach volleyball and the sketch would go on go on and then And I would just go, beach volleyball. And it started like, it became a laugh point. Right. And... The dumber it got, the better it got.

19:08Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well sometimes, I mean, I even applied to the early film work, which you had some... By the way, was that good for sound? Yeah. I see blood coming out of his ear. But I think of like Austin Powers. And that was one of the first times I saw you on the big screen. And it's perfect. And so much of that is all... It's perfect. Yeah, off camera. I don't even see you. I'm very badly burned and I've fallen off. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. So. I want to reference just our shared history because it's very meaningful to have you here because you really, and I had this experience with Danny recently when Danny Brad was here.

19:42Like, I started MTV 20 years ago, 2006. And, of course, you were killing it then. You're killing it now. And to, like, go on this journey and you've always been the best, like, the absolute best to me. Well, likewise. You've always been one of the best in terms of making it fun, but also having great questions. Appreciate it. Very skilled. So we've gone on this crazy journey. Sometimes the other have been on your sets. We've done some weird sketches. One we always talk about, and probably like 1.1 % of the audience knows what I'm going to talk about, but I want to reference it because it's just fascinating.

20:15It's a fascinating moment in time. It is. Yeah. In 2010, for the other guys, you and Mark Wahlberg came into our studio at MTV. I had barely done any comedy sketches at the time, and I pitched you doing something called The Knife Show. Yes. Which was a fully improvised sketch about knife enthusiasts. We have a photo. Can I show Will the photo to jog his memory? Oh, it's coming up. There it is. So, oh gosh. They were real knives and swords. Yes. Why did you say yes to that? I mean, I guess we knew each other a little casually, then maybe you liked me well enough, but like, what was in your head, do you have any recollection of...

21:00Look, there... I was on a lot of drugs at the time. Yeah, yeah. No, it was just audacious enough, like to be pitched... So, you know, when you get kind of the rundown of what you're going to do on a press schedule, and it's like uh oh yeah josh oh yeah oh i know i i remember that guy yeah uh he wants to do a thing called the knife show what it'll be just you guys will be just talking about knives done done yes i think the best things are the simplest pitches so right that i was like i don't care where it goes yeah i don't care what the structure is this is insane and yes we're gonna do this and I don't think Mark hesitated either.

21:50Oh, no, he did not. Mark, right? Knife in my eye. Here, this photo. That fear is real. And yeah, thankfully Mark is still in my life. I love Mark, but that was a really scary moment. But you're right. What were you thinking? Very stupid. Of having real knives. Very unlawless. But we're here today to tell the tale. And we yeah, were we? Here's what I don't remember. Okay, was it presentational? Were we selling knives to the audience? Were we it was um Were we just discussing discussing knives? I'll send you the link. You should watch it again. We still have it up on the interwebs. You should watch it I watched it this morning and it holds up in a bizarre way.

22:34I Thought there was more of a it's just a black backdrop. Yeah No real like a simple idea and then I think that that That must have fueled the cosmic comedy universe because later, I think unbeknownst to the Jimmy Kimmel people, Gosling and I did The Knife Guys. This was a sore point for me. I swear, they knew nothing of The Knife Show. Okay. I was like, is stealing my idea? You know what? No one's seen this other thing. True. Do you want to do a version? No. And that was pitched independently. That's so funny. Yeah. It was out of the ether. It was the knife ideas. All right. So we referenced SNL, which of course was the formative seven years of your life, which isn't it fascinating?

23:29You have a comedy resume and film that is unrivaled. You're at the top. SNL also will always define you in a way, right? Do you feel that? Do you feel grateful that that still is kind of - Oh, my God. 100%, you know, to have this comedy institution that you watched and thought to yourself, one day, God, that'd be cool if I could do that. But yet never thought it would happen. It's too big of an idea to really think about. Are you surprised at the sketches that people still want to bring up to this day, that things like Cowbell and Jeopardy and... I'm still surprised by all of it. It's because it's a game of inches.

24:17Yeah. Success and failure and whether you get, you know, there are a lot of funny people out there. And the fact that Lauren took a chance on me or any of us, it's truly remarkable. And the fact that that show still to this day allows a certain amount of freedom that doesn't exist anywhere in the creative landscape of where you can, you know, there really isn't, there's a certain level of supervision, but for the most part, you can write whatever you want and put it up at that read-through table. Right. So, and, you know, that's insane. I find it so funny that some of the celebrity impressions you did at the time were so specific and niche and yet they hold up.

25:15To a generation today, I can't imagine they know who Harry Caray is or Robert Goulet. And yet even James Lipton, they were so meaningful to us, but I'm sure they still play because they are so specific and odd. I guess. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, as Tom, they're slipping away. You think? I mean, I guess I occasionally get a shout out to Goulet. But it is, it's very specific. But that was kind of what I was more enamored with. Because I knew when you have someone like Daryl Hammond in the cast who's going to do all the big important impersonations, I thought, oh, I should really be, you know, work around the edges.

26:05On the fringes, yeah. Yeah, and do just bizarre, obscure people. That's how, like, Adam McKay and I were talking about, like, sitting around talking about Neil Diamond's music. And then next thing we know, we're like, let's write up a Neil Diamond. I go, well, I've been kind of working on a Neil Diamond. like let's write a VH1, like behind the music of Neil Diamond where he is just unhinged with the way he talks about how he created the songs and then just go into his very kind of benign pop kind of stuff. And so those were always intriguing to me. Jumping into, and we're not going to cover nearly all the films, but I wanted to touch on a bunch.

26:55So Zoolander for instance, are you welcome in Malaysia? Is there like a ban on you? You... I need to go there to see. I have yet to go to Malaysia. Okay, you haven't gotten the invite. You would think I would have been there multiple times. I have not been invited by the government. That's not on the press store? That's weird. It should be Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, and one quick stop in Malaysia. Knife show in Malaysia? If you want to do the knife show in Malaysia, we'll get Mark. For no apparent reason. Right. Is there a country that has a very unusual relationship with you? Like if you touch down in a certain country, is there a certain film they love you for?

27:41Have you tracked any? Well, speaking of Zoolander, the couple times I've been to Italy, I remember I was in a cafe once, and this woman was like, there he is the zoolander i'm like oh well no i'm not the zoolander but yeah but like the genius the zoolander i was like well no i'm i'm ugato yes you know what i mean oh that that movie in particular the italians love it in your yeah the italians the italians love it uh i'm trying I'm trying to think of, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's, I guess the French really put Anchorman on a pepstool. Really? Yes. Wise, yeah. To where I was, I forget what show that is that's like their, it's like an interview chat show but it's news specific.

28:42and it's on like five nights a week at like six o 'clock every night. And they had me on the panel once, which is so disconcerting because you have the translator in your ear translating everything. Yeah, there's that delay. But they were asking me all these esoteric questions about tell me, Ron Burgundy, he represents current state of journalism. Wouldn't you say? I'm like, exactly. Yes, that's what we're doing as Ron almost but yeah, so yeah, the European the foreign lens on some of this stuff is is always interesting as to what You know they gravitate towards since you bring up Anchorman a couple things.

29:23I've never had a chance to ask you about one is famously It's the script started as like a plane crash movie. Yeah It was a comedic take on a live, which everybody needs. It was the news team was flying. The year was 1976, our bicentennial year. And they were at a big news conference in Philadelphia where all the anchors were gathering to celebrate the bicentennial. And they were flying. They were either flying there or flying. And Ron asked to pilot the charter plane. he convinced the pilots that no I look give me give me a hand or I know what I'm doing I have my pilot's license and immediately loses control the plane and they they crash land in the Rocky Mountains huh and then yeah it was the it was a survival movie did that how far did that get like was there you know what happened was that they it was a mid-air collision between a cargo plane that was carrying uh the only cargo on the plane were chinese throwing stars and um baboons which a lot of the baboons survived so then out the film they're trying to figure out how to survive and get off the mountain while being hunted by the baboons so occasionally we'd have a scene and then an unknown news anchor from another station would be killed by a Chinese throwing star we're like take cover they're on to us and the whole time Veronica Corningstone is saying you know if we just head down we can get back to like I'm pretty sure there's a city no we need to seek higher ground And the men were not listening.

31:21And needless to say. I would have greenlit it. But here's a little, this is a true story. Paul Thomas Anderson. I was going to ask about this. What's the Paul Thomas Anderson-Ankerman connection? So Paul came and guest wrote on the show while we were there for a couple weeks. SNL, right. He'd always been a huge SNL fan. He loved our cast. And he said to Adam and I, you guys, do you have any scripts? Like script thing? Like what if I produce something for you? What would you say to someone? Like I could just be your 800-pound gorilla in the room and just you could write anything you want. And we're like, well, we do have something.

32:03Do you like that Boone's in the jungle? Even Paul was like, huh. I like it. question mark? It was even too much for Paul. And so then we they were like, man, maybe it should be just a little more conventional. Right, yeah. That's what screams, Anchorman screams conventional to me. But by those standards, yes. Well, when you think about where it started. Yes. Have you ever talked to Paul about being in one of his films since? I haven't gotten the call. So. That baboon script really threw him. Paul, I'm ready. Elf probably correct me if I'm wrong remains kind of the miracle of your career right because like if you're like 2 % in the wrong direction it's a career ender yeah totally at what point did you and I've expressed that many a time at what point did you know was it not until the premiere you saw Final Cut like that it actually honestly I mean you know I think true comedians I don't know I don't believe anyone who says I knew it was going to kill right I think true comedians we always are like I don't know I think it's funny but you know it's it's just an educated guess and um and yeah there's always a part of your brain that's like god is this going to work so that was lingering for I don't know yeah probably until I saw it with an audience and then it was like oh I remember getting a call from my manager when they were doing some test screenings and they did like a back to back screenings with two different audiences so they wanted to see how it was going to play so one recruit was really more a family recruit.