An Interview with Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell is the reigning Hollywood king of comedy, with hits like "Anchorman," "Talladega Nights," and "Old School" on his resume. In his latest film, "Semi-Pro," Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the owner/power forward of a fictional ABA team, who desperately wants his team to survive the merger with the NBA.

I was part of a roundtable interview with Ferrell before a FunnyOrDie.com live show in Columbus, Ohio, where Ferrell discussed how he keeps in shape, recreating the ABA's last days in the 1970s, and working with a bear.

Q: You've done race cars, you've done ice skating, basketball….what other sports do you want to go after? WF: I'd love to go after a deep sea diving movie…in space. What else? I'd love to do a billiards film, and a jockey…I'm a really tall jockey. So those are the three I'm working on.

Q: you're very proud of your body. WF: …and I should be. Q: (chuckles) How do you keep in shape? WF: Well, it's all about the cubed cheese. I eat about three party packs of cheese a day, just to create a base. From there, anything's possible.

Q: There's no nudity…Have you gotten modest on us? WF: What do you mean? Oh, in this one? Q: Yes. WF: Well…I think the shorts are pretty good. So, yeah. I think that's still a big win in the body department.

Q: You were a marathon runner. Do you ever worry that you're going to wake up fit one day and you're gonna have to just use your hair for the physical part of the comedy? WF: Well, I haven't run a marathon in four years, so I'm retired. For that reason. I got scared.

Q: What was it like to see yourself how you might have looked in the 1970s? WF: You know, it was great to get to grow my hair out, because you rarely get the opportunity to do something like that, it was fun. That's why I love the 70s, because people thought the fashion was good. They thought they were looking stylish, and they really weren't. So that's obviously a big part of the film is the wardrobe and the look. And the crazy thing is that it's not exaggerated at all. I was watching footage of a press conference with Rick Barry, and he literally had a neckerchief that fell off his shoulder, and that's where I got the idea to always have a scarf tied around my neck. But fashion, especially in the ABA, was ridiculous. So it was fun to kind of bring that to life.

Q: Did you consult with any former ABA players, especially Rick Barry with the underhanded free throw thing. WF: You know, Kent, our director, consulted with some guy who runs a web site that's everything about the ABA, and I think that's where we got a lot of our logos. The NBA owns all of that, and we worked with them too, and I think Andre had a conversation with Dr. J, and at the front of the movie we have Artis Gilmore and George Gervin and Jay Silas, and those guys were blown away at how authentic…and crappy everything looked. So that was cool to watch those guys walk into our arena we had made and there was the feeling of we're going back in time.

Q: How did you approach developing the character of Jackie Moon? WF: You know, a lot of it was already in the script. I've known Scott Armstrong since "Old School," and he was working on this crazy 70s basketball movie. The foundation was there and I kind of built upon that, basically.

Q: Would you characterize Jackie Moon as a "jive turkey"? WF: Ooh…those are strong words, but I would have to agree. He is very much a jive turkey. Capital 'j." Capital "t."

Q: How much do you actually ad-lib in your movies as opposed to sticking to the script? WF: 22%. Q: (laughs) WF. I've done 23, 25 in the past. That's too much. And 17's not enough, so 22%.

Q: How different was this than working on sports movies as opposed to something like "Stranger Than Fiction" or "Winter Passing" where I guess there's less than 22% ad-libbing? WF: Yeah, they're totally different universes, and especially when you throw in the sports element of it, where even though it's a comedy we still have to run these choreographed plays and there are camera angles and everything. So that adds another level of complexity that cut down on some of the improv you would ordinarily do, because we only had so much time of the day, and 10 guys on the court and 2,000 people and you just had to be really organized, and when you have those types of films, it cuts down on when you can throw stuff out. But that's what's so fun about working in comedy, especially the stuff I write with Adam McKay, and we scare actors who come on the set because we'll literally do the scripted scene twice, and then he'll say, "let's just start playing around." They'll be like, "uh, do we have to?" and he says "yeah, just go for it. If it works, it works, if it doesn't no one will ever see it." So they're pretty different.

Q: What was it like working with Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin on this? WF: That was great. We had a two or three week training camp before the film, which Woody was still working, but he came for the second half, and Andre threw himself right in, wearing the short shorts in practice, and (laughs), we all come from three different worlds in some way. Andre's just getting to be known as an actor now, obviously he comes from music. Woody's he came from comedy, but he's also a fantastic dramatic actor, and I'm obviously in between all of that. So it was really fun to meet and kind of put all of our heads together about it.

Q: Do you come to the set "on" for when you really have to do the crazy scenes, or do you really have to just turn it on when you get there? WF: No, I'm usually in the same mode of just having fun on the set. It just depends. I don't even know if I think about it. It's just…if it's something where I have to scream because I'm being attacked by a bear, I'm not walking around going "AHHH" all day long. I just do it when they say action. I just snap into it.

Q: Did you work with a stuffed bear for most of it? WF: I actually…here's the weird thing. I worked…I actually lived with a bear… Q: (Laughs) WF: in Montana for about six months. We developed a relationship, but we never worked with that bear. So it was a brand-new bear, and we didn't feel comfortable with each other, so I didn't actually work with the live bear.

Q: How about the roller skating? WF: Roller skating…the shot where I'm at the top of the ramp--that's me. Q: And that's where it ends? WF: And me getting up. That's me too.

Q: Everyone looks like they've dribbled a basketball before. Was that a prerequisite in casting? WF: Yeah, it was. I've played a lot of pickup and played in high school, and Woody obviously still plays, and when we auditioned Andre we literally stepped in the parking lot and just dribbled around a little bit to see if he looked like he could do it. So they had a pretty intense kind of tryout period in LA where they tried to find players for the other teams. It was pretty amazing, you'd be standing next to a guy who played at Loyola Marymount. Everyone either played in college or were playing overseas, so it was kind of wild. It always tripped me up, because they were always playing at quarter speed for them. So you get lulled into a false confidence of "I can hang with these guys," then one take they're like "let's open it up," and they're running right by you and dunking on you and you're like "yeah, I'm not that good."

Q: What about the fro? Yours was yours… WF: Yes. Q: And Andre's? WF: No, that was not his. Q: So you were the only authentic fro? WF: Yes.

Q: Do you ever miss being on "Saturday Night Live" and the live element, or do you prefer the movie-making environment? WF: Well, I don't really think about it that much, because that was just a different chapter, and I haven't been on the show for so long, but having said that that's why it's so exciting to get to do something like tonight, being in front of a live audience, because it's fun, and I've never done anything like that before. And I think tonight is going to be something like 14-15,000 people. It's cuckoo.