Will Ferrell Had A Lousy Time Working for Woody Allen
Will Ferrell had just wrapped filming on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy when he got a call from his agent, he told BAFTA in 2019. “He says, ‘I think Woody Allen wants you to be the lead guy in this (new film). He wants you to read the script.’”
During a time when actors were still eager to work with Allen, Ferrell readily agreed to check out the screenplay for the writer/director’s 2004 comedy Melinda and Melinda. “I read it and thought it was really wonderful,” Ferrell said. He figured the process would go like this: Ferrell would tell his agent he liked the script, the agent would tell Allen that Ferrell was interested, and then Allen would make his casting decision.
“But he was like, ‘Okay, it's yours if you like the script.’”
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In fact, Allen told female.com.au that he was jazzed that the SNL veteran had jumped on board. “When I realized I was going to be working with Will Ferrell, I went back over the script and tried to customize it more for him and that became fun,” Allen explained.
The basic conceit of the film: Two playwrights tell competing versions of a story involving a woman named Melinda — one comedic and one dramatic. Ferrell was the male lead in the comedy version. In other words, Ferrell played “the Woody Allen role.”
“That was an interesting experience,” Ferrell chuckled to the BAFTA interviewer. “(Allen) literally told me if he was in the movie, he would have played the part that I’m playing. And it’s very difficult because he starts to direct you in the way the script is written. It’s hard not to act like him. Even when he explains it, he’s Woody Allen, right?”
If Ferrell was unconsciously doing an Allen imitation, it doesn’t sound like the director noticed. Instead, Allen had different problems. While promoting his new comedy You’re Cordially Invited on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ferrell revealed that he got some confusing direction from Allen during filming. “I don't know how to say this, but you’re coming off nasty,” Ferrell stammered in a pretty good imitation of Woody Allen offering acting advice.
Ferrell was completely befuddled about what to do with Allen's direction. “It’s a comedy,” he emphasized to host Josh Horowitz. “I’m not trying to come off nasty.”
So that made two things Ferrell was trying to avoid in his performance: Nastiness and a cut-rate Allen imitation. “I really wanted to have it be a distinct performance that was separate from him,” Ferrell said. “And I think in that role, there are definitely moments where I’m very Woody Allen-ish. But for the most part, I was able to find my own way.”