Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Will Ferrell Talks Latest Comedy and His Favorite SNL Sketches

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

Willie Geist gets together with comedy icon Will Ferrell to talk about his new movie, "You're Cordially Invited", starring alongside Reese Witherspoon. The two also discuss Ferrell’s recent documentary with friend Harper Steele, "Will and Harper", and reflect on Ferrell's time on SNL ahead of its 50th anniversary. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I know I say often how excited I am to bring you a conversation and I always meet it because I love our guests, but I may be a little extra excited this week because we have one of my favorite people in all of entertainment. For my money, the funniest man on the planet, he is Will Ferrell. I will not waste your time or insult your taste. in high comedy with a long winding introduction because you know this man also I'm battling a sinus infection. Nobody wants to hear this voice for very long. What I will say is that it was so cool to sit with Will. We've been doing this show Sunday today for almost nine years now, always been at the top of

our list for a sit down, finally got together and made it happen. The timing was perfect. The 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, the show where he was hired in 1995, 30 years ago, spent seven season and the show that launched him and made him a comedy star. Too many memorable sketches to go through, but we do talk about them in the conversation. We actually got together a little restaurant right off the rink at Rockefeller Center in the shadow of the building where he held an office and sat and performed for those seven seasons on SNL.

Also, the rink where he skated was Zoe Day Chanel, an elf. Remember that? So, anyway, you know the story of Will Ferrell, Irvine, California. grows up. His dad as a keyboard player for the Righteous Brothers, goes to USC, gets a job as a bank teller, tries to have what he calls a real job. Then he goes, this isn't working. Joins the groundlings, the improv group in L.A., discovered there by Lauren Michaels, hired in 95, seven seasons there. And then right out of S&L, those make or break years where you're not sure if your favorite cast member is going to make it in this new chapter. He comes out with

old school, elf, and anchorman, all within the same. space of just about a year and the rest is history. The man is off to the races. So a really fun conversation with Will. He was so great to be with, so relaxed, obviously so funny. And I'm so thrilled to bring you a conversation right now with Will Farrell on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Will? This is your restaurant, right? Yes. That you own. Yes. Yeah. Do you like it? It's okay. We're not serving yet, unfortunately. So just the water. Bottomless. Yeah. Start simple, simple menu, water, as much as you want. Unlimited. Yeah, it's bottom. The waiter will be around shortly as it gets lower.

Yeah, perfect. So happy to have you on the show. Great to be here. We've been doing the show for a little while now, and you've always been at the top of our list. So thank you for doing this. I'm glad I did not fall off. You didn't. Yeah. And when we asked previously, you were adamant. I will not sit at a table with that guy. I was pretty adamant, and then I've lowered my standards. And here we are. Here we are together. Here we are together. Well, it's great to have you either way. Congratulations on the movie.

Thank you. It is so much fun. I was just talking to our producers. It feels to me like a return to like two people I really like. Meet the Fokkers, wedding crashes, all those just fun movies where worlds collide. What did you love about the idea when you heard it? I just, Nick Stoller, who wrote and directed the movie, who's done so many great comedies. He and I have been friends for a long time.

and he just he said hey I want to give you a call I've got this idea for a movie and I'm like great and he calls me he's like so it's um it's basically two weddings booked at the same destination on the same date and that's all I have and they just starts maniacally laughing of which I'm like okay yeah let's do it that was it so that was it and then we also started spitballing about who the other person were like someone like reese witherspoon what about reese witherspoon and then she said i'm in as well and here we are but uh but people are loving people like like like you said i think there's like this nostalgic quality to this type of film and this type of comedy and at the same time they're they're getting surprised at uh kind of you know how much heart it has also you mentioned reese she has said on the other side She got a similar phone call and said, bucket list for me to work with Will Farrell, and she didn't hesitate before she jumped in.

What was it like working with her? She's fantastic. I think this will remind people how funny Reese is and that America's sweetheart got started in comedy, and she's just so good. She's so good. We play really well off each other, and it was like that from, the first read-through, and we just, we kind of share the same sensibility in that the funniest things are executed by committing to the character, no matter how silly the premise is,

no matter how stupid your actions are, you have to believe that you're, you're doing it, for real. And so we, we, we, we just fit perfectly. I would argue there's a thread through all of your characters and movies, what you just described, just commit to it, go all the way. wink at the camera, ever, ever, even if you're going off a cliff. But I mean, that's what's guided me this whole time. There's so many bits in the movie that I won't give away in this interview because people want to go see it. But let's just talk a little bit about the premise. Right. Who is Jim and where is he in his life at this moment? Jim is a single parent. He's dedicated his entire life to raising his daughter.

who is kind of like his best friend, and he wants her life to be perfect, and finds out that she's engaged just coming out of college and at a very young age, which is a surprise to him, at the same time, he wants her to have the perfect wedding. And because he grew up as a single parent, he has a lot of skills that a lot of single dads wouldn't, He's very good hairstylist. He knows hair and makeup.

He's an excellent baker. He's made her wedding cake. And he's going back to the place where he and his wife were married. So this Palmetto Island is a very significant place to him, as it is for Reese's character and her family, which is why the stakes are so high. We should point out it's got a good edge to it too. Yes. Our rating. Right. Language situations.

Right. Mostly about language. Yeah. But, you know. In a good way. In a good way. Yeah. Yeah.

So when you get a phone call to do a movie these days, given where you are in your career, what does it take to get you out the door and away from your family for a couple of months? What's important to you? I want it to be, you know, now I want to work with people. I really want to work with. I want it to be something that just feels different from what I've done. It doesn't have to be totally different, but just at least in a slightly different category. And yeah, it's really about just having the most fun and working with great people is where I'm kind of at right now.

When I finished the movie yesterday, I thought that's what a movie should be. Yeah. I just had a good time. Yeah. It didn't ask a lot of me. Right. I don't feel like it was teaching me a grand lesson. Maybe I missed it.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, boy. That, you didn't think about your life? Well, actually, I take that back. I have a daughter of a certain age where some of the themes did kind of destroy me very briefly before you brought me back and wrestled an alligator. Yeah. Level set us.

That's the, that is the emotional touchstone scene of the movie when I wrestle an alligator. Yeah. And people have to watch to understand how or if that makes sense within the context of the movie. Congrats. It's a really fun, really fun movie. Thank you. Also have to give you congratulations for the reception for the documentary, Will and Harper, that was really talking about being touched by something and moved by something. For people who haven't seen it, a SNL writer you worked with for a long time who was hired,

I think the same week you were in 1995. Her name's Harper Steele, sends you an email during COVID saying what? That at age 59, that she will be transitioning. And of course, always the comedy writer, the subject heading was, here's a weird one, and just throws it away. But yes, at age 59, I will be. transitioning to a woman in it and that, you know, it's something, in some ways it's really sad that it took me this long to get to this point. In other ways, it's so beautiful that it,

it might basically, my psyche wasn't allowing to suppress this anymore. And so, just reached out to her and said, wow, congrats. I love you. Can't wait to see you soon. And then that started, I started thinking about the fact that one of the things that Harper loves doing and really defines her is are these cross-country road trips that she loves taking. And everyone who knew Steele and knows Steele is like, oh no, she allows, she takes four or five of these. a year. And I started thinking, oh, I wonder how that's going to change now as a trans woman. And can she go to the same places that she wouldn't have thought twice before?

And when we finally got a chance to meet in person, I brought this up to her, that would you want to go on a road trip and I'll go with you as your advocate, your friend, and go to these places as your new self and you know maybe it'll make it less awkward more comfortable and at the same time it'll give me an opportunity to ask all these questions I have so that I can be a good friend and and we'll film it p.S we're going to film it which she immediately she was like that's the sweetest thing I can't believe you're bringing this up but no there's no way and eventually she came around to thinking, you know what, this could be a neat opportunity. Yeah, you mentioned it, I think, among the many beautiful parts of that film, is because of

your friendship, you had the ability to ask all these questions on that long trip that, frankly, a lot of us have, and don't have an opportunity to ask, we're afraid to ask, don't know if we're allowed to ask. Do you think that was an important part of this journey was to speak for a whole lot of people, not just the two of you in the car? For sure. And she had the grace to kind of, you know, for anyone who's seen it, she makes it really clear, like, ask me anything. Like, you're my friend.

Like, I don't care if you make a mistake, quote unquote, in the way you're asking. And so I think that's the beauty of what Josh Greenbaum, our director did. He kind of let, you know, warts and all, it shows me kind of stumbling. through the process and making sure I'm kind of, you know, phrasing things the right way. And you see, you kind of see my transition as someone who becomes more well-versed in what it means to have a friend who's trans. And, but yeah, I think that was, that's one of the takeaways people get from watching it. Were you surprised, Will, one way or the other, by the response you got out on the road.

I'm thinking of the scene. You're going to the bar, the roadhouse kind of joy. And she sits down and finds a group of friends to talk with, or you go to the race, or you go to the steakhouse. What surprised you about the trip? I think we were pleasantly surprised. I mean, of course, there's hate out there. There's pockets of hate, and that's a reality. to anyone in the LGBTQ community.

But I think we were pleasantly surprised that, I think for most people, they're kind of resting places kindness. That when you really sit down and have a conversation with someone and it becomes less mystical, less scary. And when we'd have these conversations, people were like, well, great to me. And you're welcome anytime.

And I think that's really who we are, you know, as Americans. I think the media tries to get us to, and politics and stuff, tries to get us to be at odds with each other. But, boy, there's just a lot of nice people out there. And yeah, we were really surprised at some of those environments. we were really surprised at there's a there's a great moment at the at the Grand Canyon in which this this couple who are traveling around it turns out she's a retired therapist and she comes up and is actually is making amends for and Harper is now the therapist and as

as she's bringing up the fact that she thinks she gave, she gave a past, a patient bad advice. She wanted to transition. And she's like, I'm sure I talked them out of it. And Harper was like, give yourself a break.

It's okay. So we just had a lot of beautiful moments like that. That, uh, the funny thing is, is you, you spend 17 days in a car. You're talking.

You're going along. You're not necessarily remembering what just happened. from the previous day and when we got to L.A. and we're there at the beach in Santa Monica and it was a rap and we're walking back to our cars and Harper and I turned to each other

like, God, we will never forget this, but I don't think there's a movie there. I don't, nothing happened. Like, you know, there was, there wasn't a dramatic, there wasn't, and sure enough, you know, the skill, the filmmaker, he found that movie. So that's why it's been such an amazing journey to go from that moment

where we didn't even know there was a movie. And we're still, you know, deep down, we're still governed by being self-loathing comedians. No one's going to watch this. You know, it's been from January to this January, last January to this January, it's been the best year, especially for Harper. She's been phenomenal.

Starting at Sundance a year ago, like, right now for a full year. Yeah. I totally agree with you about the kindness thing that we gin up this. And there's cartoon versions of people who are different. As someone said, it's hard to hate up close. You meet somebody go, oh, you're a person and you're funny and you have all these things that I like about people. Even if someone doesn't necessarily agree or understand, they're going to keep it to

themselves. They're not going to, you know, shake their fists in your face. So that was nice to be reminded of all that. Did you see, Will, any risk in it? You were so universally beloved by everyone. No politics involved because of your career. Did you see any risk into stepping into what, for some people, is a political conversation? Absolutely.

I recognize that it could carry that. But I was willing to take that risk. and I just thought, okay, what's the worst thing that could happen? No one wants to watch my movies. No one, you know, I get shunned for doing this. Okay, it'll be a good one to go out on. But it just didn't, I don't know. I've had a pretty good success rate on going with that,

first thought and not second-guessing it. And this was just another example of that. And I was willing to roll the dice. And I think at least I had that feeling that we were, we were at least going to be slightly humorous throughout it with our conversation. We know each other so well. It wasn't a get-up on your soapbox type of thing. It's really just a conversation between friends and advocacy, regardless of what anyone's going through in a way. So I kind of landed there with it. Yeah. The dinner in Vegas was particularly.

And here's the weird thing. I'm dressed like that, and there's a camera crew, obviously. No one comes up. Even looking like that guy, David. Abernathy. Very good, thank you. Even looking like David Abernathy, no one approached. So the disguise did work.

I love how the waiter, too, just had to keep his professionalism and tell you about the specials. John. Yeah. Yeah. Do we think John knew at the end of the day? I think John did at the end. Eventually he knew. Eventually he knew.

But when your mustache falls off, there's a good chance of that now. That was a very S&L moment. It just half comes off and you're desperately trying to glue it on. It was another kismet moment in shooting that scene and that movie. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Will Ferrell right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Will Ferrell. So let's talk about SNL right across the street from here.

And if I can, before we get to it, just to go back to sort of the genesis of where comedy enters your life. Because you're obviously people know your dad was a keyboard player for the righteous brothers. Your mom's a teacher. You were athlete. You were in student council in high school. all these things. I'm a suburban American kid, right? Who had a good upbringing.

At what point does comedy become important in your life, if not yet a career goal, but something that you know you're good at? I've had enough times answering this question that I think I finally have the answer. It's just something I always wanted to do. But I didn't give it, kind of any thought or any weight because I just saw how unpredictable my dad's life was as an

entertainer. So I thought, I'm just not going to do that. There's no way. I want a real job. And I didn't know what that meant, but I envision myself carrying a briefcase to a job somewhere in a building. Briefcase comes back into play. It does.

Yeah. And so I just did a lot, but I loved making my friends laugh. I loved consuming comedy any way I could. And it just, it continued through college. And even though I pursued sports journalism, once again, something that was comedy. It felt like entertainment, but was still more of a real job. And it really wasn't until I graduated and I took my first class at the ground. I thought, you know what, this is like an, this is an itch that if I don't scratch it, I'll have it forever.

So it was just that moment where I thought I better just give it a shot and probably not going to happen, but at least I'll know. Let's see. Let's see. Yeah. You graduated college, moved back home. I did the same thing. Great. Drove a liquor delivery truck in Jersey.

That's a sign of greatness. It is. Moved back home, bank teller. Drove the liquor truck. with trouble the liquor Is it true and I hate to put you in the spot here? Yeah.

That the count was off some days when you were a bank teller that there was some money. I'm not at liberty to say. Not yet. Is this being recorded? This whole interview? Your attorney's right over there.

Oh, can I say anything? I was such a bad bank teller. My first day, I remember leaving the house. I said to my mom, I would rather do stand-up comedy on the Tonight Show naked than go to work today. I'm so nervous about making a mistake. So I go, I'd get through my, I would make one transaction and then shut my window down.

And then it's everything, okay, open my window again. Next. It was like one every 15 minutes. And we get to the end of the day and you cash out. And I was like, $300 short. And the manager's like, That's okay. So-and-so was 300 over and the other, you know, window.

Maybe you guys just traded money. I was like, yeah, maybe we did. Who let's, like, that's bad management. But it wasn't malicious. No, it wasn't. Yeah. And I know, I know we didn't trade money. So I just went, yeah, I mean, man.

And then the next day, I was off by the weirdest number, like $258. And I'm like, she's like, what's going on? I'm like, I don't know. I'm very nervous. I'm very nervous. And then I was good. Okay. But the first two days.

Yeah. Maybe someone was pranking me this whole time. Nice the manager gave you another shot after two straight days of a miss-down. But you have to know, I was so nervous. Like the nerves never calmed down to the point where there was a regular customer who'd come in every Thursday to like cast or check order. And I couldn't do the thing they wanted. and he just said let me call your manager over and uh he's like this is your worst teller he's awful he's and he's like he's sweaty and weird and she's like she's like hey that's not nice i'm like no

it's true but he berated me in a really calm way to her and she was defending me and i was like I can't argue with anything the same. So those are, you know, character-building moments. So needless to say, that was not the future. That was not the career. The financial world? No, no. You stepped out of that world and onto a stage with the groundlings.

Right. Right. You catch the bug. You get pretty serious about it. And then you say maybe this is the thing that I could do with my life. There was no way. It was like if, like I know it's still, a very hard business, but oh my gosh, this does not feel like work to me.

And yeah, that's just a wonderful groundlings in Los Angeles is kind of what second city is to Chicago and like what UCB is now to New York. And that was just met so many amazing people who just, we all just wanted to make each other laugh. And it was, I was like, I could, this is what I want to do. Yeah. Then Lorne Michaels comes and sees you and your group. Yeah. And sometime in 95, right? And he likes what he sees, clearly, invites you to New York for an audition process that was confusing. Is that fair to say? And terrifying? All of all, all of the above. Yeah. It was, you know, do five to eight minutes. of a political impersonation, a celebrity impersonation, and a character of your choice.

And if you don't have any of that, just be funny. At 8H, Studio 8H, on the spot where the host delivers the monologue to an empty studio, except for a camera operator, a boom mic operator, and I think it was the old stage manager, Bob Van Rye, who'd been there since the show began. And you're just in this empty... And Lauren's somewhere in the dark. He's in the background, but he wanted to, you know, he wanted to create the tension of live television. And I just remember, and they'd call you in and you'd wait outside the studio doors while the next person in front of you was auditioning.

So I could hear an audition. And I'm looking at the pictures on the walls of all the past hosts. And I was like, you could run right now. You could just get in the elevator and go back. and like hands trembling, weaken your knees kind of feeling. And then you go through that door, and it was almost so intimidating that didn't just the pressure melted away, because it was like, this is ridiculous.

Right. And so, yeah, there I was doing Harry Carey in a void to no laughter. And my second audition was even weirder because Lauren called us back and said, he's like, I want you to change everything you're going to do because in hindsight, he was like he wanted me to give a different look to the network. And that's when I did this thing where I'm playing with cat toys. It's so surreal to not do it in a sketch, but I was like taking calls at my desk and then playing with cats. You're like an executive.

Exactly. And then hold that call and I go lie on the ground. I'm playing. and I almost started laughing because no one's laugh. I'm just a weird guy playing with cat toys in an empty studio. I thought, well, at least you're going for it. And I guess it was enough. Yeah.

Like, well, this is over. It is. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to get mired in every detail of your life and career in our short time. But I will ask you this about SNL. Can we do the briefcase real quick just because we refer to it? Yeah.

Yeah. Was that after, is that the second audition? Or when was that? So I get the word that I'm being called. There's going to be a callback. And this time you're going to fly back to New York. You're going to have a meeting with Lauren. And then the next day you'll, you'll do an audition.

And I had read this magazine article about how Adam Sandler did this funny bit in the office with Lauren. I forget what he did, but that he was signed on the spot. And I was like, God, you have to have that initiative. Yeah. So I don't know why I thought that was funny. I went to like a magic kind of toy store place and bought all this fake money, toy money, somewhat realistic looking money. And I thought, well, I'm going to walk in with a briefcase and just start stacking piles of money on Lauren's desk.

It'd be like, Lauren, look, we can talk to the cows come home. we know we really know what talks and that's money and I'm gonna walk out of this room and you can either take it or leave it and I get and I have a and I get into this meeting and I can tell the tone is not yeah fun and games and so I'm sitting here with a with a briefcase and that's making me go crazy because I'm like what comedian carries a briefcase and I can't pull the trigger on the bit because he's telling me I need to change my audition and there was a tone of gravity there that did not lend itself to comedy. So when I walk out, not having done my big joke, only to meet him again a subsequent time a couple weeks later, which was the final meeting where I finally got the job. And I'm about to walk in, I'm like,

gosh, I'm going to do my briefcase bit. I walk in the assistant goes, you can just leave. You can just leave your briefcase there. I don't know why you want to bring it, bring it. I'm like, you're right. This looks stupid. Anyway, Lauren in this moment now tells me I have the job. I shake his hand, I walk out. And I'm like, hey, I grab a big pile of fake money.

I'm like, I've been trying for two months now to give him this counterfeit money. Would you just give him? It's probably $2,000. And she goes, oh, okay. He later told me how, I heard later he thought it was so funny that I couldn't. Oh, my gosh. So the briefcase did come back. Yeah.

Just the visual of you nervously clutching a briefcase and him wondering what is in the briefcase. Right. Why is he bringing, like does he have just stacks of scripts? What is he doing? Hey, it worked eventually. Something in there worked. Yeah. For all your famous SNL characters, and we know them all, you did W, the cheerleader,

Cowbell, all of those. Is there one that you think isn't remembered? the way it should be. In other words, is there one you love that people don't talk about as much as the others? Huh. I have one, but I want you to go first because it's... It's really hard to go back in the memory banks. I mean, I will say that I was so fortunate that a fair amount of them landed and, you know, it's, yeah, it's hard to say. but I don't know if I,

I'm sure if you bring something up, I'll go, oh, that's a good, that's a good thought. What's your notion? For SNL fans, they know it. But I don't know if broadly, as many people do, the old prospector. With those clanging pots and pans ahead of the invasion. Of course.

In fact, and that was my last season, and that's when Harper and I would challenge each other and I had like I had a cork board with index cards with just titles and one just said old prospector and so we would give each of

so she was like you need to write that sketch without any idea of what it was and so we wrote she wrote the old prospector yeah it's really great it's really fun it's really great and to watch the dominoes fall of your castmates just losing it I think oh okay I don't know if the lovers with Rachel Dratch in the hot tub, the two professors,

that maybe doesn't get as much attention as it should. That should be in the pantheon. But that was always trying to make the other people break. And you did. Yes. Jimmy, Drew. Right. Yeah.

There was a lot of pinching underneath the bubbling surface of the water. Poking and prodding. And then the great Will Ferrell thing at the end, where after all that slow, lovely talk. Hey, my back. and you start yelling at your lover. Horrible human being. So when you decide to leave after seven seasons,

is that a hard decision because it's worked for some people on SNL and not worked for others? And people go, hey, why did he leave SNL? It worked out great, obviously. But was that a tough call? Yeah. A little bit, a little scary for sure. You're doing this show that,

If someone had said to me, you only get to do Saturday Night Live, and that's all you'll ever get to do, I would have signed on the dotted line. And so it's my dream job. I loved it so much, but there was just, it was the right time to go in terms of a certain amount of momentum I had. And I think any artist, you're just wondering what's next. and so I had a movie that I'd shot called Old School that was being held, which is never a good sign. It was being held onto and it wasn't going to be released until much later. And I'm back in L.A.

And the only other thing we have is we've written a script called Anchorman that had gotten rejected by like 20 different studios in finance. No one wanted to do it. And then there was a script that needed a lot of work about a human who grew up at the North Pole, raised by elves. But that was it. There was no like, it wasn't like I was getting offered movie after movie part after part.

So it really was a leap of faith. But I know if I'd stayed an eighth season, a ninth and a tenth, I think it just would have been so comfortable that I probably wouldn't have even left in a way. But yeah, I just decided to go for it. In hindsight, it's like, oh, of course he left. Old school, elf, anchorman, but you didn't know that going into it. And I think that's a, that's a, people are like, Saturday Live, what a launching pad. Well, not for everyone.

not for a lot. It's a, it's, it's, it's a different world out there. And so it was great that those, the first three movies were old school Anchorman and, or Elf and then Anchorman. I mean, the fact that elf now is the Christmas movie for families, that my kids and young kids, that it's become like the miracle on 34th Street. Except for the scary, lifelike version of, of me. at Home Depot. Have you seen the scary mannequin? Yeah, when you walk in and it starts talking. They just sprung it on me on the Today Show. Oh, did they? Yeah. I wet my pants. It was not cool. They've gone a little too far. It's like Buddy the Axe murder. It's horrible. And completely

unsanctioned probably, I have to believe. 100%. Can you do that? I guess you can just do that. I don't. I trust me. There were some phone calls that were me. Stick around for more. my conversation with Will Ferrell right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Will Ferrell. Man, you go on that incredible run from Anchorman and then just into Talataga nights and go through the other guys and all these incredible movies. What do you think is the thread through all of those? What is it about those that people just fell in love with those characters?

I think there's some rather solid premises that drew people in. But I think as a performer, I'm just, I'm like the guy who lives next door that you don't think I'm going to say the things that I say. And that is the rug pull that has worked for me. And I just think the audience, I've made them feel comfortable in the sense that they're watching me going, I can't believe he's doing this. And that builds like, you know, that I don't take myself that seriously. And I've always just tried to put the fun I'm feeling in making these and have it project through the screen and hopefully you feel it. home and because it is I've I have the greatest job in the world I get to

create all these fun characters with the help of a lot of talent people as well great writers directors and yeah I've I've lived a charm professional life so why not show that you know show that in my work I think the thing you've mastered too and you've talked about this is the guy with supreme but unwarranted confidence That's always been fascinating to me. Ron Burgundy, Ricky Bobby, all of them. Yeah, and I see it every day to this day.

And I'm like, why does that guy think he can act like that? Oh, that's amazing. It just makes me laugh. Yeah, me too. It makes me laugh. How do people get like that? It's amazing. Right, yeah.

This is a hard one because there's so many. A quote most often thrown at you when you see somebody. Because I know you're like Bill Murray has been his whole career with Caddy, Jack and Ghostbusters, you're going to get the quotes. Is there one or are there two that people throw your way the most? It just depends. I mean, there's a lot. I think more of the threat is people will yell things at me that I don't recognize as a quote from my movie.

I was driving one time and I had literally been riding a bike. So I was sweaty. And this woman pulls up, she's like, why are you so sweaty? I'm like, oh, because I was riding a bike. She's like, no, from stepbrothers. After you play the drums, John C. Riley says, why are you so sweaty? And you say, oh, right, right, because I was watching cops. Never mind.

People just get mad at me. She's mad. She's mad. Yeah. Yeah. Like hit your cue, man. Yeah, exactly. I set you up.

But, I mean, that's it, you know. Did we just become best friends? You're my boy blue. Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color? Shake and bake. Sure. Milk was a bad choice. Always.

Yep. Glass case of emotion. Stay classy. Yep. Go f yourself, San Diego. You can say that about any city. That's why it's applicable nationwide. Do one you may not know that I hear a good bit

between married couples is pretty nice little Saturday. Oh, like, if we're like literally going to Home Depot or... So what did you do? Pretty nice little Saturday from old school. That's good. Frank the tank. Yeah. It's a subtle one.

And then, at my boys basketball game, I had someone holding up a coffee and going breakfast of champions. And I had to, I go, kicking and screaming? They're like, yes. Oh, nice. And he was like, you have no idea how often you're quoted in our household. I was like, I do. now and I need to be paid.

I'm going to file suit. The fact that you just said that, you owe me a check. Seven cents. It seems you enjoy too well occupying this place and embracing who you are to so many people like the elf stunt at the LA Kings game, showing up the Lakers game and effectively arresting shack. Things like you lean into that stuff. You love sort of performing out in the world. Yeah. Is that right?

Yeah, it's funny. I'm not really, I'm not someone who's on all the time. I don't have to be. And yet there's certain moments where I'm thinking, oh, gosh, that'd be funny to go to a hockey game, sit on the glass, not shave for a week, and just get a cheap buddy elf costume with a cigarette and just be sitting there drinking a beer and not explain it. it's kind of my Andy Kaufman side and that I love the questioning of it as much as any sort of adulation I may get. Yeah.

So that's, I don't, I can't explain it. Well, it's like the talk show appearances when you'd go sit with Conan and have a parrot on your shoulder, but I was real clear. I didn't want to talk about the bird. And yeah, like, Conan would be like, do it. I love it. Whatever, whatever ideas you have.

Yeah, it's just It's just fun to still be out in the world And do weird stuff like that Well, because I have you sitting here, I have to say You have brought so much joy to so many people For so many years And thank you You're the kind of guy we're just happy to see when he comes on a screen

I'll never forget In Wedding Crashers There's a silhouette at the top of the stairs And you're literally saying, please let that be Will Farrell And there he is And David Dobkin, the director said when they tested the movie, the audience was literally buzzing

that is that who we think it is, which is so cool. Yes. So, yeah, I don't know what to say. And the nunchucks were a nice touch. And obviously yelling for the meat-low. Which I carry on me at all times. Inez, do you have my numbschucks?

Okay, thank you. They're at the ready. You have to be. If you were to come at me right now, and I'm about to. I'd be so ready. Well, thanks, man. Thank you.

You're the best. I appreciate you doing that. I loved it. Thank you. Yeah. My huge thanks again to Will for a great conversation, you can stream your cordially invited now on Amazon Prime. And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week.

If you want to hear more of these conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews in living color. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sitdown podcast.