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It took time for Will Ferrell to develop a thick skin.
Ferrell, 54, has been acting professionally for more than a quarter-century. The “Step Brothers” star reveals how he copes with movie misfires in The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual comedy issue.
“I’ll never forget, [the movie] had had a terrible Friday night, and I wake up Saturday morning and I’m about to go for a jog, and you literally start wondering, are people going to point, ‘There he is! His movie underperformed!’ And then you finally go, and nobody gives a s**t,” says Ferrell. “And that same night, I go out to dinner, and this guy sees me in the bathroom…
“He’s like, ‘Land of the Lost!’ I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, here it comes,’ and he goes, ‘That was so funny. Oh my God, when you poured the dinosaur pee all over! Congrats, man.’ And it was a good reminder that there’s the movie business and then there’s the world. So yeah, your skin gets thicker, and you learn to shake it off. And it does get easier over time.”
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The three-time Emmy-winning actor also dishes on his focus in 2021.
“There’s just so much going on in the world, and sometimes it’s nice to turn your brain off,” says Ferrell. “Coming out of the ’60s, which were so contentious, Steve [Martin] was like, ‘Everyone’s doing message comedy, and I just want to walk out with an arrow shooting through my head,’ and that’s kind of how I feel right now.”
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Ferrell will next star alongside Ryan Reynolds in the Christmas-themed musical film, “Spirited”.
“The whole point of the movie is that the ghosts of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, who pluck a Scrooge every year to show them the error of their ways and then they’re like, ‘I will be a better person’ — there’s a crisis of faith in that, like, what [the ghosts] do, does it even work anymore? That’s what we’re examining,” he explains.
“So yes, it’s really fun and there are great songs, but I also had moments of, ‘Wait, I’m crying in this now, too?’”