The comedy icon switches gears with his new movie.
Though the old actor’s adage “Dying is easy; comedy is hard” may be true, the leap from comedy to drama in film is often a treacherous one. The story of actors who’ve attempted the transition is a mixed bag of triumphs and failures; there’s the great (Tom Hanks), the good (Bill Murray, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams) and the not-so-good (Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller).
Add Will Ferrell to the list of comedians attempting to do what few of his ilk have dared try and even fewer have succeeded. In his latest effort, Stranger than Fiction, Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a shy, earnest IRS agent who awakens one day to find that he’s the character in a novel, his every action narrated by a British woman whose voice can only be heard by him. Though filled with comedic moments, Stranger than Fiction is a drama at heart, albeit an absurdist one. Think of it as It’s a Wonderful Life, re-written by Charlie Kaufman.
Obviously, it’s a major departure from Ferrell’s recent efforts like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, lighthearted comedies that relied heavily on the SNL alum’s formidable skills at improvisation. “Those other things I've written and I've had a big hand in so I kind of knew the whole project from the ground up, and the character inside and out,” says Ferrell. “This was something that was already kind of just so beautifully laid out that I just felt like I had to follow the blueprint that was there and to let the words do the work.”
Ferrell wasn’t afraid of a new challenge: “I think it's human nature to try to change it up,” he says. “I really admire people…the Johnny Depps of the world, who are able to kind of do all these fun different things and that'd be fun to do to.”
It wasn’t a forgone conclusion that Ferrell would get the part. “Marc [Forster, the director] was very frank with me,” recalls Ferrell. “He was like, ‘Look, I like you, but I don’t know if…I have to figure out if I’m going to use a dramatic actor who can pull off the comedy or vice-versa.”
“And then I was lucky that he kind of decided on me, after Russell Crowe fell out,” Ferrell jokes.
The effusive actor found it easy to relate to his lonely, isolated character. “I’ve had moments in my where I thought if I wasn’t acting, if I had a career in the ‘private sector’ and didn’t have a family, I do have some tendencies where I really could have a monastic existence and be ok with it,” says Ferrell. “I think there's been times in my life – certainly recently as things get more and more hectic and chaotic – [where] you kind of seek refuge in having some order and also very simple things.”
For his first major foray into drama, Ferrell had some pretty stout company, with a cast that includes perpetual award-winners Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. “I felt like I’d joined the Harlem Globetrotters, this all-star team,” says Ferrell. “I was just trying not to foul out of the game or throw the ball out of bounds.”
Count Hoffman among those impressed by Ferrell’s chops. “The third or fourth take in the first scene that we had, I literally backed and I just said, ‘Uh-oh. He’s more real than I am,’” says Hoffman. “I went to the director and told him, ‘He’s really working very subtly. I’d better match that. He was showing me up.’”
Hoffman adds: “I thought he would do a comic performance similar to what he had done. I’d never met him before.”
Ferrell plans to continue pursuing new genres and new challenges. “I think it is good to kind of test yourself in that way,” he says. “So hopefully I won’t get too chicken and I’ll still keep trying to mess around with stuff.”
Ferrell begins shooting his next project, Semi-Pro, in February. He describes it as a movie “about the ABA, which was kind of the stepchild, sister league of the NBA in 70s that had all these outlandish characters and crazy small-market teams.” Ferrell plays – you guessed it – a basketball player.
I’m guessing it’s a comedy.
Check out ReelzChannel.com's Stranger Than Fiction page for clips from the film and more!