Will Ferrell turned down a huge pay packet to star in Elf 2

Virgin Radio

29 Oct 2021, 15:53

Bad news for fans of the Christmas classic, Elf, as it turns out Will Ferrell turned down the chance of there being a second movie.

He was offered an awful lot of money to do it too, but said he couldn’t with “good conscience”.

The film outperformed all original expectations, despite the $33 million budget.

The success of the first film meant studios were desperate to make a second to cash in. 

Ferrell told The Hollywood Reporter "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would've been, like, 'Oh no, it's not good. I just couldn't turn down that much money.' And I thought, 'Can I actually say those words? I don't think I can, so I guess I can't do the movie.'"

The sequel was written and ready to go, and he was offered an incredible $29 million to repeat his role as Buddy The Elf.

Think how many toys that could buy!

At one point, Ferrell apparently thought Buddy would jeopardise his acting career, due to the bizarre nature of it.

He told James Corden back in 2018 it crossed his mind that it might be a major mistake.

Will recalled running around New York in a pair of Buddy’s bright yellow tight, thinking: “Boy, this could be the end,'' whilst filming the movie.

He also starred in Old School, but it turns out director Todd Phillips had to fight to keep Will in the role.

Ferrell told The Hollywood Reporter: "There were people who didn't like the idea of me in that role, but I never found out who."

Fortunately, plenty of other people in Hollywood love Ferrell.

Paul Rudd said he soon realised how talented Will was when they worked on Anchorman.

He said: "I remember being on the set of Anchorman, and he'd just say these things in the moment, like [the now-famous line] 'Milk was a bad choice,' and I thought, 'God, this is a really funny person being funny in ways I haven't seen people be funny before,'

"And what really struck me was that Will was doing it seemingly without a neurotic bone in his body. It didn't make sense that someone that funny really didn't seem insecure in the ways that so many funny people are."