Will Ferrell Broke off His Friendship With Adam McKay After John C. Reilly Got the Role He Wanted in HBO’s Lakers Mini-Series
Will Ferrell is one of the most recognized faces in comedy. His projects have a wide range and most of them are in film and television, but he has a few credits in other mediums. Ferrell’s performances as Buddy in Elf and Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy often define his career for many folks, but he’s also a writer and producer. However, he broke off his friendship with Don’t Look Up writer/director Adam McKay after John C. Reilly got the role he wanted in HBO’s Los Angeles Lakers mini-series.
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are longtime friends
Ferrell and McKay’s comedic partnership massively influenced the genre. They first met while working on Saturday Night Live. Ferrell worked as a cast member and McKay worked as a writer. The pair went on to work on Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers. They joined forces to create the production company called Gary Sanchez Productions, where they worked on Funny or Die and made more movies. The creative duo split ways after their comedies stopped performing as well and McKay wanted to make more serious projects.
McKay is working on an untitled LA Lakers mini-series for HBO that follows the sports team during the 1980s. Ferrell wanted to play team owner Jerry Buss. The cast includes Jason Segel, Adrien Brody, Jason Clarke, Lola Kirke, Gillian Jacobs, Gaby Hoffman, Sally Field, Michael Chiklis, and Mike Epps.
Adam McKay unintentionally hurt Will Ferrell’s feelings
Vanity Fair spoke with McKay to discuss his upcoming film Don’t Look Up, but he also talked about his split with Ferrell. McKay ultimately hired Ferrell’s best friend, Reilly, onto the HBO mini-series to play Buss. He expressed that Reilly fit into the role better and he didn’t see Ferrell in the part. However, McKay specified that he wanted to approach his friend with caution. “Didn’t want to hurt his feelings,” McKay said. “Wanted to be respectful.”
McKay went ahead and brought Reilly onto the project without ever telling Ferrell, which infuriated the actor. “I should have called him and I didn’t,” McKay said. “And Reilly did, of course, because Reilly, he’s a stand-up guy.” He wrote emails to try and remedy the situation but to no response. “I f*cked up on how I handled that,” McKay stated. “It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book.”
McKay continued: “In my head, I was like, ‘We’ll let all this blow over. Six months to a year, we’ll sit down, we’ll laugh about it and go, It’s all business junk, who gives a sh*t? We worked together for 25 years. Are we really going to let this go away?’” However, he said that Ferrell “took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for.”
The pair became the exact thing that the filmmaker wanted to avoid. “The whole time it was like I was saying it out loud, ‘Let’s not become an episode of Behind the Music,'” McKay said. “‘Don’t let it happen.’ And it happened.”
‘Don’t Look Up’ is taking a stab at awards season
HBO’s untitled LA Lakers project is still light on details. However, McKay and Ferrell are both keeping busy on other projects. McKay’s Don’t Look Up is gathering a lot of noise on the awards circuit. Several critics have called it hilarious, although its comedic roots could turn awards voters away. A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence lead an all-star cast.
Meanwhile, Ferrell is coming off working on the Apple TV+ series The Shrink Next Door alongside Paul Rudd. It’s a mini-series based on the podcast that goes by the same name.
