The world first met Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live, and he's managed to stay relevant
and keep audiences laughing ever since.
At first, no one knew if his Everyman schtick would fly outside the comfort zone he'd established
on late-night TV — but clearly, it did.
Here are some details we dug up on the actor who later brought the beloved "Buddy the Elf"
to life.
"I love you I love you I love you …"
"Wow...that was weird."
Change of plot
Out of all his films, Ferrell reportedly claimed that Anchorman is his favorite, and it's more
because of the film's journey than the movie itself.
According to The Ringer, he said,
"It's kind of the Cinderella story of the movie no one wanted to make."
The idea of a feature-length script had been kicking around since his SNL days, but the
pitch was incredibly different at first.
The original survival film concept featured Ron Burgundy crashing a plane full of newsmen
into the side of a mountain, then trying to escape a group of orangutans armed with throwing
stars.
"Nooo!"
Don't laugh
Jimmy Fallon was notorious for breaking character on SNL, but let's be honest — everyone who
watches the show hopes to see the actors crack up, and Will Ferrell enjoys it just as much
as you do.
"It just made us, just made us closer as a cast It just reminded us and the audience
that it was a live television show."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ferrell admitted the entire point of SNL's
"Lovers" sketch was to make Fallon laugh.
It wasn't just overacting and being too affectionate with costar Rachel Dratch, but it was the,
quote, "slightly Madonna-esque" accent, too.
"Nonsense. there is no greater aphrodisiac than the Ho'Tub…"
"it's hot tub, not ho tub."
Tough subject
In 2016, it was announced Ferrell was considering playing President Ronald Reagan in a movie
that was hyped as a "hilarious political satire."
The film was based on the idea that Reagan had actually been suffering from dementia
while he was in his second term.
After news broke, Reagan's son Michael tweeted,
"What an Outrag ....Alzheimers is not [a] joke...It kills...You should be ashamed all
of you."
Additionally, the former president's daughter, Patti Davis, wrote an open letter to Ferrell
in The Daily Beast.
She appealed to him to visit a dementia facility and explain to the patients and families there
exactly why Alzheimer's is appropriate for comedic material.
Page Six reported Ferrell dropped the project almost immediately, and his decision was praised
by both Reagan's children and by the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.
Seeing double
When Ferrell hosted an A.M.A.
Reddit thread, he acknowledged all the talk about there being an uncanny resemblance between
himself and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
In 2014, they both appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to compete in a
drum-off.
"Take that, funnyman…"
"looks like baby leawrned how to play the drwums"
In 2016, the pair organized a massive charity event called the "Red Hot Benefit Comedy and
Music Show & Quinceanera", and according to Rolling Stone, great fun was had by all.
Punches thrown
When Ferrell and The House costar Amy Poehler appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May
2017, they reminisced about the 2001 SNL episode DeGeneres hosted.
While they had a tough time remembering some of the sketches, no one forgot how Ferrell
accidentally punched her in the face.
"I love that I got punched by will it made me… made me happy."
"Yea"
"And I thought about suing, and I didn't"
After the incident, Ferrell sent her an appropriate apology gift — boxing gear.
A possible prank
Lifetime doesn't exactly seem like Ferrell's typical choice of television network, so people
were confused when reports came out that Ferrell and Kristen Wiig had been working on a top-secret
Lifetime project called A Deadly Adoption.
The day after the news broke, the duo announced they were pulling the project because of the
leak.
In June, however, billboards advertising the film started popping up, and it became clear
they hadn't pulled it after all.
After it aired, viewers seemed to have no clue whether it was supposed to be a serious
film or a spoof.
Ferrell talked to Deadline about it in 2017, saying not only was it a horrible movie, but
that he did the whole thing as a joke.
However, Wiig told Vulture in 2015 that they had never intended to make a comedy, suggesting
it had been completely mislabeled.
So, no one knows — not even the people who were in it.
What if?
Ferrell says he's had his share of failures, and when he gave the commencement speech to
the University of Southern California's Class of 2017, he said his first foray into stand-up
comedy came with equal parts terror and exhilaration.
He added that even now, every day is filled with some fear of failure.
"But my fear of failure never approached in magnitude my fear of what if...what if I never
tried at all?"
Ferrell believes the key is enjoying the journey without becoming too focused on the result.
He told The Guardian it's not a matter of being fearless, it's a matter of being ignorant
to the possibility of failure, adding,
"If you know too much, you will be totally paralyzed."
As for Ferrell's final message to the USC graduating class?
"I will always love you"
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