Austinist Talks To Ron Burgundy Will Ferrell

Last Saturday, actor Will Ferrell made a quick stop in Austin during a press tour for his new film Semi-Pro. He also attended a sneak preview of the film and did a Q&A session at the Alamo Drafthouse, where attendees were required to dress in 70's basketball attire for admission - you can see the Drafthouse "team photo" here. Austinist's Tom Thornton and Gordon And The Whale's Chase Whale spoke briefly to Ferrell during the media day. During the interview, Ferrell shared his thoughts about the NBA season (he's a Lakers fan, but predicts a Spurs-Celtics final), doing multiple sports movies ("Do I wish there was a movie separating the three sports comedies? Yes, I do."), and things that people yell at him on the street.

Austinist: We admired your work in the indie drama Winter Passing. What attracted you to that particular role, and are you interested in doing more dramatic work in the future?

Ferrell: That was the kind of the first opportunity I had to do something a little more dramatic. It was an indie film that came through my agent at the time, and from Adam Rapp, who's a big off-Broadway playwright in New York. So it was a great opportunity for the first time to do something different, and since then I've gotten to do the Woody Allen movie (Melinda and Melinda) and then Stranger Than Fiction, so I would love to do more of that. But like everyone else, you kind of get put in a certain category and well, those types of scripts really aren't piling in! So it's not a crusade of mine, but at the same time, I really enjoyed those types of movies and would love to do more.

Chase Whale: How did you find working with veteran actor Woody Harrelson?

Ferrell: The key word is veteran, because he's old. No, he's awesome. He's a cool guy, and he was the only guy we wanted for that part. We knew we really did have to get someone who could play basketball. When we auditioned Andre [Benjamin] too, we literally read the scenes and then went out in the parking lot and dribbled the ball around, because we wanted the basketball to look as real as possible. But I love Woody, and he's great in this movie. He's the right actor for it, too, because he's comedic, but he could also play those [dramatic] scenes with Maura Tierney and make them believable. And I'm so happy for him with all the praise he's been getting from the Coen Brothers movie, 'cause he's so great in that, too.

Chase Whale: What's next for Funny Or Die?

Ferrell: What's next for me personally? We haven't shot anything lately - wait, I take that back. We've been doing this Funny Or Die comedy tour, where we've gone to several college campuses, and it was an opportunity to promote the movie, but also promote the website and give three up-and-coming comics a lot of exposure. So we have Zach Galifianakis and Nick Swardson and Demetri Martin [on tour]. But we've been filming it and doing behind the scenes stuff so we're going to start putting that up on the site.

Austinist: Do people often yell catchphrases at you on the street? We're curious: what do you hear most often from fans?

Ferrell: Yeah, yeah, all the time. I hear:

1. "Mom, more meatloaf!"
2. "You're my boy, Blue!"
3. "Let's go streaking!"
4. "I want to be on you."
5. "I'm kind of a big deal."
6. "Milk was a bad choice."
7. "Stay Classy."
8. "RICKY BOBBY! RICKY BOBBY!"

So those are the top, what, 8?

Later, at the Semi-Pro screening, Ferrell answered a question (from our wife) we didn't get in earlier about why he hasn't done sequels (we're paraphrasing, as no recording was allowed):

Mrs. Austinist: So, speaking of bear wrestling, would you consider Anchorman 2 at some point?

Ferrell: Maybe we'd go straight to Anchorman 3. Actually, so far, Adam McKay and I have been reluctant to do that, because it seems like there are so many other original stories to tell. But Ron Burgundy has been making appearances on this Funny Or Die comedy tour we've been doing, and he's just such a fun character to play. So we've been talking about doing something again with Ron Burgundy. If I were to do a sequel, it would be with that character. So we'll see.

[Semi-Pro Official Site]
[Will Ferrell IMDB]

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