Will Ferrell ‘Elf’ Movie Costume Auctioned for Hundreds of Thousands
Elf wouldn’t be as great without the costumes. Will Ferrell in his bright green getup remains embedded in fans’ minds. One viewer must be a huge fan of the Christmas classic as they recently bid hundreds of thousands of dollars on Ferrell’s movie get-up.
The costume auctions for $300k
Buddy the Elf’s donned the most memorable green Elf attire throughout the majority of the film. Though he was not wealthy in the film, whoever bid on his costume was. TMZ reports that the bidder paid nearly $300k for the iconic outfit, which is 10 times more than the original asking price for the costume.
Related: Despite Wanda Sykes Dropping Out of ‘ELF,’ She Makes a Small Appearance
Prop Store is holding an auction for some of the most classic film and TV props in history. The winning bid on Buddy’s look came in at $296,702.66. The costume that Ferrell wore in the film was expected to garner between $27,600 and $41,000.
It’s unclear who the bidder is and what their connection to the film is. But, they clearly have an affinity for Christmas, or at minimum wanted a big-ticketed Hollywood item. The auction includes 1,000 pieces of Hollywood memorabilia. All items collected are expected to bring in over $7 million.
‘ELF’s’ costume designer shares secrets
Laura Jean Shannon created the festive outfits for Elf. She told Feel Christmassy that she had a few challenges throughout the design process. When asked whether it was difficult to create something for Ferrell’s 6’3 frame, she noted:
It was less a challenge dressing Will due to his size and more a challenge to make sure nothing seemed off-putting or in bad taste. After all, I had to dress a grown man in tights and a cutaway coat. Needless to say, we did have a fair amount of fittings to be sure we struck the right balance between absurd and adorable.
Related: The Writer of ‘ELF’ Did Not Grow up in a Religion That Traditionally Celebrates Christmas
As far as designing costumes for the elves who worked in the North Pole, Shannon took a different approach. “I made very strict rules for our North Pole elves and their costumes were an amalgamation of many cultures and times,” she said. “We wanted them to be a people of the world, so I researched folklore and art from many cultures and many time periods that spoke to the patterns of design for their embellishments.”
Will Ferrell was not the original choice for the lead role
It’s hard to imagine anyone besides Ferrell playing Buddy, but the film’s creator David Barenebaum once revealed that a film studio preferred someone else. The film originally landed in the hands of The Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA), who wanted a major film star to play in the lead role. They wanted Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley, but Barenbaum disagreed.
“They wanted to make it a Chris Farley movie, which would have been a different movie,” Barenbaum said in the Netflix special The Holiday Movies That Made Us. In order to make the film he wanted without Farley, Barenbaum allowed the year contract with MPCA to expire.
