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RENAISSANCE MAN

By Antony Teofilo

July 5, 2004

Not Necessarily the News
The ANCHORMAN Press Conference, Part 1
By Antony Teofilo

Finally.

A comedy that doesn't give all its best gags away in the trailer.

ANCHORMAN is as surprising as it is hilarious. If you can stay away from press on this film before going to see it, I highly recommend doing so.

Of course, that's a strange way to address you, the reader, when, in fact, what you'll see below is coverage of a press conference with the cast of ANCHORMAN. Included in the interview were writer/director Adam McKay, Will Ferrell [ELF, SNL], Christina Applegate [MARRIED WITH CHILDREN], Paul Rudd [The Shape Of Things], Steve Carell [BRUCE ALMIGHTY, THE DAILY SHOW], and David Koechner [SNL].

Fear not, however. The questions and answers that appear below, while entertaining, will tell you almost nothing about this excellent flick. As the cast sat together in a mock-up of their movie's newsroom, they joked in such an outlandish way with the real life press corps that was posing the questions, at times their answers bordered on the nonsensical.

At play, though, was a heavy dose of the chemistry that makes ANCHORMAN such an unqualified delight; this cast can bounce an idea around like an excited kitten batting a still twitching dead mouse. The script takes many surprising diversions, and the pace and tone of the film are almost genre-busting, in that there are moments of action and hilarity that are extremely sneaky, popping out when you least expect it.

As such, I'm not really going to talk much about the flick, other than to say go and see it. I could rail on about Steve Carrell's scene stealing turn as Brick Tamlind, or the marvelous ensemble cameo surprises, the snappy, eminently quotable dialogue, or Ferrell's hilarious take on misogyny...but I won't.

Sure, Will Ferrell's an Askew Alumni (for the record, he said he'd like to work with Kevin again)...but this movie is what we've been hoping for: a star-powered ensemble vehicle that allows Ferrell complete, unfettered access to a universe intimately fueled by the cast's uncanny gift for quippy improvisation.

(The cast introduces themselves from left to right.)

McKay: I'm Adam McKay, the director.

Rudd: I'm Paul Rudd. I'm also the director.

Ferrell: I'm Jan-Michael Vincent. I'm also the director.

Applegate: Christina Applegate: craft services.

Koechner: Uh, Dave Koechner: staff medic.

Carell: And Steve Carell.

McKay: (talking to Carell) Who are you?

Ferrell: He did not serve a function on the film. He's just a good buddy of ours who wanted to be around. He's a great guy.

McKay: So, um, yeah. Who's got some questions for us? Anyone want to start off?

Q: Did you base your character on any specific anchors from the ‘70s, or was it an amalgamation of a lot of people?

Ferrell: I based my character on an imaginary figure by the name of Walter Pinbrook. And Walter Pinbrook was a lieutenant in the French Navy. During the 1800s. Not a lot of literature on Walter Pinbrook.

No.I didn't base it on anyone. I didn't really watch that much tape, either.

Q: Then where did this character come from? You co-wrote the script.

Ferrell: Right.

Q: Then where does this guy come from?

Ferrell: Just, um. From Adam and I, we'd get together, we'd get a case of Gin. We'd sit down, we'd go to our mountain retreat.

McKay: We'd go into a haze not unlike Martin Sheen in the beginning of Apocalypse Now. In the hotel room.

Ferrell: And it gets ugly.

McKay: For awhile it gets ugly. We'd punch mirrors, and we'd explore our darker selves. No, it's just an amalgam of all Newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these guys were gods.

Q: Was there a lot of improv going on during the production of the movie?

Koechner: We were fined if we didn't follow the script. There was a five-dollar fine meted out if you did not pronounce every word of the script and take notes on punctuation. Even now I'm not supposed to speak.

McKay: There was tons improv on Anchorman. A lot of it did show up.

Ferrell: Ad-libs. We call them make-em ups sometimes. I don't know if you want to use that. It's a technical term.

Applegate: Throw-ins. Make-em ups.

Koechner: Off-the-cuffies.

Carell: Quipsters.

Q: Adam, can you talk about directing that sort of activity, and trying to keep a through-line throughout the production? We've heard that there's an eight-hour director's cut of the movie.

McKay: Eight hours? That would be amazing. We did have a four-hour cut of the movie.

Q: Do you think we'll ever see that version of the movie?

McKay: Yeah, we're going to put out a DVD with all of it. We literally had enough extra footage that we made a second movie called WAKE UP RON BURGUNDY. I'm not kidding. That is not a joke. It's absolutely true. It's an hour and forty minute second movie of entirely fresh material that will eventually be put on DVD.

Q: I want to ask you guys about the big fight scene, and then ask Christina about her fight scene with Will.

Ferrell: We'd rather you didn't. Let's move on.

Koechner: May I also mention that buried within this new hour and forty minute movie is an adult film. It's buried in there, too.

Ferrell: An adult film?

Koechner: Yes. And we all participated...You see a blacked out line across certain people's eyes, [but] you'll know who's in the orgy.

Q: There are some pretty impressive fight scenes, which is surprising for a movie called ANCHORMAN...

McKay: We met before this movie for six months, much like the Matrix. [The cast] worked out with Martial Arts instructors. We were in Hong Kong for two months working on the wire-fu techniques. Another four months, we all went to Madagascar, and they all became Balinese Mask Makers. That had nothing to do with the movie. I just wanted them all to have that experience. And, then, Steve and Dave actually went to the Brewer's Fantasy camp. And got to play with the Jim Gantner and Robin Yount. A once again, nothing to do with the movie. It's just a neat little side story.

Carell: It was really fun.

McKay: There was a lot of effort. We started shooting this in ‘89. With an entirely different cast. It was originally Harvey Keitel who was playing Will's role.

Q: Did anything funny happen on the set?

Applegate: No. [Laughs]

Q: Will, Entertainment Weekly quotes you as the hardest working man in show business, with eight projects in production. How many of those projects are actually going to get made?

Ferrell: Literally, none of those movies are happening. You know? Sometimes, this is a town based on rumors, and those things just get away from you.

Q: What's the biggest rumor?

Ferrell: That I'm not gay. And that pisses me off. Because I work hard with my partner Roger. [For the record, Ferrell is the happily married father of a newborn son.]

Q: One very important cast member isn't here: the dog that played Ron Burgundy's ever-loyal companion Baxter.

Ferrell: Yes. Peanut.

Q: What was it like working with him? You guys had great chemistry together.

Ferrell: We did. Because I'm a professional, I'm allowed to say this: I let him lick my balls. That's what you need to get close with your animal. (looking to McKay) I can say that, right?

McKay: No. You should defiantly not have said that. When that happened in your trailer, when you were doing it, I said, "This is horrifying. All you have to do is hold a little piece of food in your hand, and the dog will come near you." You said, "No, no. I want to do it this way." And I specifically said, "When we do the press junket, don't bring this up."