| Will Ferrell & Cast Interview, Semi-Pro |
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| Wednesday, 05 March 2008 | |
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Q: We have seen you ice-skating in ‘Blades of Glory’ and driving race cars in ‘Talladega Nights.’ How hard was it to shape that beautiful body of yours into a basketball physique for this film?
WILL FERRELL: Well I pretty much stereotypically have a basketball physique to begin with. So, it didn’t take that much sculpting. I hear some laughter over here, I don’t know why.
ANDRE BENJAMIN: No, I’m laughing at him because he didn’t think you had a body.
WILL FERRELL: But, y’know, Jackie Moon is a – he’s a player from a different era when players were a little more voluptuous. He’s a voluptuous player. Curvy.
KENT ALTERMAN: Y’know, he put sexy back in basketball. Not that it ever left.
Q: Since this movie takes place in Flint, Michigan, what kind of response do you expect from Michael Moore?
WILL FERRELL: Um, I heard he is going to protest the movie actually.
WILL ARNETT: Really?
WILL FERRELL: I heard he’s actually picketing it already.
WILL ARNETT: It’s important.
WILL FERRELL: He doesn’t feel like we have a proper depiction of Flint.
WILL ARNETT: Wow!
Q: For each of you, could you say who your favorite professional basketball team is and how do you like your chances this year?
ANDRE BENJAMIN: To be honest, it sounds crazy, but I’m not a big basketball fan. I’m more of a football fan. So, I don’t know anything about who is good right now. I’m from Atlanta. But the Hawks are playing pretty good right now…
WILL FERRELL: Are the Hawks pretty good this year?
ANDRE BENJAMIN: They are pretty good. They need new uniforms, but they are alright.
WILL FERRELL: I am a Laker fan. Born and raised in Southern California, right here. And we just made the deal of the season, so...
Q: What is the deal of the season?
WILL FERRELL: Uh, we just got Paul Gasol from the Memphis Grizzles.
WILL ARNETT: Hot mike.
WILL FERRELL: Very hot mike.
WILL ARNETT: My favorite basketball team is the New Jersey Nets, but…
WILL FERRELL: But he’s more of a hockey fan first.
WILL ARNETT: I’m more of a hockey fan to be honest.
WILL FERRELL: Will’s Canadian.
KENT ALTERMAN: I’m a Spurs fan.
Q: For the two Will’s, how does your improv background work into a film like this? And also, for Andre, what’s it like to be around these guys when they are going off on the improv.
WILL FERRELL: Wow. I was not expecting that question. (Laughs.)
WILL ARNETT: No answer for it.
WILL FERRELL: Wow. Will and Andy got to sit at the scorer’s table and just…
WILL ARNETT: Andy Daly and I, Andy Daly plays Dick Pepperfield very well. He’s an awesome improviser and has a long history with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and we were kind of in the cheap seats. And we had the benefit of being just bored a lot and just kind of throwing remarks in, so that’s how…
WILL FERRELL: So, they were kind of in a contained situation where you could just roll the camera and they could come up with 8,000 things that we’d cherry pick as to what worked for the scene. I mean this was kind of the typical pattern where we’d start filming the scenes written and then slowly throw some zingers in there. I really try to change it up whenever I can in my personal life.
ANDRE BENJAMIN: I wasn’t too intimidated.
WILL FERRELL: What?
ANDRE BENJAMIN: No, no, because when I had to audition for the film, I had to walk into a room and audition with Will. So I guess once I got over that it wasn’t too bad. And then with music you freestyle a lot and you kinda just throw ideas out and y’know when you read the script and want to make your character as real as possible, sometimes you just go off on a tandem and you keep going. And you’ve got film, why not? So keep recording it.
Q: Were there any problems on set with the short shorts?
WILL ARNETT: Be careful.
WILL FERRELL: As soon as… [noticing Woody Harrelson’s late arrival to the press conference.]…Oh great!
ANDRE BENJAMIN: Woody!
WILL FERRELL: We started about an hour ago. (Laughs.) And it’s a lack of respect for journalism, for fellow cast members, for your director…
WOODY HARRELSON: I do apologize. Slow getting up this morning.
KENT ALTERMAN: Woody looks great everybody, doesn’t he?
WILL FERRELL: What was the question? I think Andre and I had the shortest shorts, which a lot of our fellow teammates refused to wear.
ANDRE BENJAMIN: And they kept pulling them down. Actually we had to do two weeks of basketball training, so I went ahead and got it over with and I wore my shorts during the two weeks of practicing. WILL FERRELL: That’s how dedicated Andre was.
ANDRE BENJAMIN: So, I wouldn’t feel self conscious the day we were shooting, so I wouldn’t feel funny because Clarence didn’t care about the shorts, so why should I?
WILL FERRELL: But, I did have to wear a special pair of underwear, because when I went into a defensive stance…there was a potential for things to happen. Woody, care to comment on the shorts? Yours weren’t that short.
WOODY HARRELSON: Nobody doubts your leading man status.
Q: Most of you guys are too young to remember the actual ABA, but did you watch tapes of these teams back in the day and what surprised you most? Also, what was at the very end of the credits that they cut off right when Will was saying something?
KENT ALTERMAN: After all the credits? Oh, he said, ‘Precious, where are you? Dewey?’
WILL FERRELL: You’re pretend writing right now. I can tell. (Laughs.)
Q: What about looking at old ‘70’s footage and stuff like that?
WILL FERRELL: Kent, do you want to?
KENT ALTERMAN: We did look at a lot of stuff. HBO did a fantastic documentary a while back called ‘Longshots’ and that was very inspiring to us. It had a lot of historical footage. Will, do you want to make that funny?
WILL FERRELL: Uh, let’s see [turns to Arnett] did you look at any footage?
WILL ARNETT: No, I didn’t look at any footage.
WILL FERRELL: No, Canada.
KENT ALTERMAN: But I personally grew up in that time. I was in San Antoniowhen the Spurs became the Spurs, because they were the Dallas Chaparrals in the old ABA and my family and I went to all the games.
WILL FERRELL: Kent was known as ‘the kid.’ He was this guy who was famous for his heckling, no kidding. In which, didn’t Dave Cowens try and charge you one time?
KENT ALTERMAN: He did.
WILL FERRELL: He wanted to kill him. Good story.
KENT ALTERMAN: That was after the ABA days, after the merger. He was known as a hotheaded, fierce competitor, so I went for it. And he came into the stands a few seats and threatened me, which was terrifying. I was a teenager and I said not another word the rest of the game. And when Bill Walton came to set to do a piece for ESPN, we were talking and he said, ‘I remember San Antonio was a crazy place.’ There is this group in San Antonio called the baseline bums and he said, ‘Yeah, Dave Cowens went after one of the baseline bums one time.’ And I said, ‘That wasn’t a baseline bum, that was me.’ He said, ‘No way!’ And then I did the math in my head and said, ‘You weren’t on the Celtics then, why do you know that story?’ And he said, ‘Are you kidding? In that day and age? That was a sacred line no one crossed. That story was famous around the NBA.’ So, I’m not proud of it by the way.
Q: First off, Will, I have to say you look amazing in the ‘70’s for some reason from ‘Anchorman’ to this. For all of you, what was your favorite scene to shoot?
KENT ALTERMAN: I can answer that, ‘Will’s favorite scene…’
WILL FERRELL: Luckily it’s hard to say. It’s hard to pick one. If I had to pick one right now, it would probably be the Russian roulette poker scene, just because that was insane. We had a good time. That was fun.
WOODY HARRELSON: Were they real bullets?
WILL FERRELL: No, not until the last take and the prop man thought it would be funny to sneak in a real bullet. (Laughs.)
WILL ARNETT: Turns out he wasn’t a prop guy.
WILL FERRELL: Yeah, turns out he wasn’t a real prop guy. He was juston the stage that day and it turns out he had done it before.
WOODY HARRELSON: He’s done it a lot.
WILL FERRELL: He’s known for it.
WOODY HARRELSON: Probably Russian. (Laughs.)
Q: Woody, congratulations for ‘No Country for Old Men.’ Do you think it’s going to win two weeks from today for Best Picture and is it easier being a killer or a lover?
KENT ALTERMAN: You mean in real life.
WOODY HARRELSON: Well, I have no idea whether it’s going to win, I’m just glad people seem to like it. And I’d say it’s probably easier being a lover. Because I’ve never been the other honestly in life.
Q: But you played one very well in ‘No Country.’
WOODY HARRELSON: Thank you. I didn’t get to kill anybody in it. You’re kind of rubbing it in aren’t you? Because I get killed.
Q: We have the Oscar’s coming up pretty soon. Do you guys have any predictions for any of the categories?
KENT ALTERMAN: We actually know who won, but we’re not allowed to say, right guys?
WILL FERRELL: Yeah, this list doesn’t look too familiar to me. Because I’ve never really heard of any of these actors.
WILL ARNETT: You’ve never heard of George Clooney?
WILL FERRELL: Nope.
WILL ARNETT: He’s a pretty big movie star.
WILL FERRELL: I mostly follow Japanese cinema. (Laughs.)
WILL ARNETT: What are some of your favorite Japanese films?
WILL FERRELL: Oh, ah, the list goes on and on.
WILL ARNETT: One would be great. (Laughs.)
WILL FERRELL: Hikiro Ashiri. 22, strikingly handsome. (Breaks down laughing)
Q: Andre, you’ve done just about everything -- clothing designer, actor, and musician. How do you balance all those different careers? And what motivates so much artistic divergence?
ANDRE BENJAMIN: Um, it’s really whatever is really going on at the time and check which way the wind is blowing. And I guess what drives it is just creativity. I just like to make stuff. And if at the end of the day I can have something in my head and actually see it be produced, y’know, come to an end point, that’s the joy of it. It’s all creative-based. As long as I can be creating something or do something that can be cool, I’m good.
Q: When you saw yourself in the costume and hair and makeup, what did you think?
WILL FERRELL: I felt completely at home. No, in looking at a lot of the reference photos of the league and the period it obviously looks funny, but it’s not that far from the truth. I mean, so I love the fact that it really is sort of historically accurate and humorous looking all at the same time.
Q: Would you be caught dead in anything you wore in the movie?
WILL FERRELL: Y’know what? I might start wearing neckerchiefs now in my personal life. I think that’s a nice piece of accoutrement.
WILL ARNETT: It’s beautiful.
WOODY HARRELSON: And it covers the neck.
WILL FERRELL: It does. So, if you have any unsightly blemishes or a weird Adam apple.
WILL ARNETT: A hickey.
Q: I can just tell you had so much fun filming this, so this is directed to the director. Were there times where you had to say, ‘OK guys, cut it, cut it!’?
WOODY HARRELSON: Has that ever happened to you before?
KENT ALTERMAN: I don’t think so. Well, we did have a lot of fun but we were also doing a production, so there were times when we had to find that delicate balance point between having too much fun and getting irresponsible, but I think we did it pretty well.
WILL FERRELL: Yeah, Kent had the kind of unenviable task of herding all of us. Because you’ve got 10 guys on a basketball court and about 1800 extras and every time he yelled cut we’d want to just start shooting the ball around and running around and doing bits at the scorers table. So, yeah, it was tough.
WILL ARNETT: And then it’s Kent just telling you to quit it.
WILL FERRELL: Yeah, ‘Come on, Kent! Knock it off!’
Q: Who herded the bear?
WILL FERRELL: Who herded the bear? Uh, y’know, we did something unusual that’s never been done before. We went wild. There was no bear trainer. We captured a bear. In fact most of the production was devoted to – that’s why this was a 9-month shoot. Six of those months we had to trap a bear up in the Sierra Nevadas.
WOODY HARRELSON: Big bear.
WILL FERRELL: Well, the first one wasn’t big enough, we didn’t like it so I think we released it I think in Burbank somewhere. And we finally found our hero bear and that day we just rolled film and just let it do it’s thing…[bizarre audio noise] Audio tech…
WILL ARNETT: You predicted this.
WILL FERRELL: I did. I predicted this.
WOODY HARRELSON: I thought you were crazy, when you kept bringing up the robot thing.
WILL ARNETT: I know.
Q: The soundtrack for this movie is absolutely fabulous, can you all tell me what your favorite party song is and Andre can I get one that’s not yours?
KENT ALTERMAN: Really crazy coincidence. I talked to all these guys and everyone has the same answer. Don’t you love it to?
WILL ARNETT: Yep.
WOODY HARRELSON: That’s my favorite.
WILL FERRELL: ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper. I also love ‘Papa Nagella.’ Anytime I hear it.
Q: Guys, I understand that some of you did a basketball camp for this, who was really the best player?
ANDRE BENJAMIN: Woody. Page 2: Will Ferrell & Cast Interview, Semi-Pro
    
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