While on set for Paramount's Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues at SeaWorld San Diego, we had a chance to talk to Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) himself in between his turns hosting the afternoon dolphin show.  The newscaster appears to have fallen quite far since his high point at the end of the first film, but the chance to reteam with Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champion Kind (David Koechner), Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) in tackling the 24-hour news cycle may just be his path to return to the top.During a break on set, Ferrell talked to a small group of journalists about Burgundy's state at the outset of the film, avoiding the curse of the sequel, collaborating with writer-director Adam McKay and his unique style, reuniting with his co-stars from the first film and getting to work alongside new additions to the world of Ron Burgundy.  Hit the jump for the interview.  Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opens December 20th.anchorman-2-will-ferrell-sliceIt seems like Ron Burgundy was at the top of his game in the last movie, and now he’s fallen pretty far.Will Ferrell: He has. What details can I give you? He got fired, I’m sure you heard that. And he’s working at SeaWorld. And that’s what’s happening.So is this a “putting the band back together movie”?Ferrell: In what regard?In terms of the team from the first movie. Is there a sense of putting you guys back together as a team or checking in with where they’ve landed as well?Ferrell: Could be. [laughs] These interviews are going to be terrible by the way. [laughs]What can you tell us about the sequel?Ferrell: I can tell you that it is basically Ron Burgundy and his integration into the world of 24-hour news and that’s what I can tell you.So if this is 1980, do we go decades in this film?Ferrell: We never really said what year the first one was so, yes, it’s definitely later.There were a lot of different versions of this sequel over the years; there was the musical at one point. How did you guys decide on the final form of what you wanted to do? How did those other versions inform where you ended up?anchorman-2-poster-will-ferrell-ron-burgundyFerrell: In terms of other different versions, there really wasn’t any kind of exploration outside of just spitballing a general idea. It’s not like we ever went down the road and started writing a script in one way or the other. So, it always was just a very surface … we talked about the idea of a musical, the idea of just going to a different genre altogether, all these things. The one that made sense to us and felt like a fun thing to explore was inserting these guys into 1979 and 1980 into something that’s so commonplace to us now, but at that time was a revolutionary thing, the idea that news was going to be 24-hours and it was also the first year for ESPN and it was the beginning of this explosion of channels, and now we have food networks and everything. CNN was the beginning of all of that and we just thought that would be funny to see that with these guys in the same way that introducing a woman to the newscast was an interesting arena that this would be the same sort of juxtaposition.What lesson about Ron Burgundy dealing with change of having a female anchor, how does he adjust to adapting to the 24-hour news cycle?Ferrell: I think the beauty of Ron Burgundy is that he’s not very good at change, so once again, it’s difficult for him. And yet it’s justified because, what we found was they literally just needed warm bodies. They had to hire a massive group of people at one time to be on around the clock. That’s why he and his news team are on at two in the morning. Of course, they take it … they’re horribly upset by that. Really, his ego is really bruised.When you guys made the first one, to some extent, it was under the radar. Ron was not a character that you had done before. This time, everybody knows Ron and everybody has an opinion on him. Has it been harder for you guys to keep things under wraps? And harder for you to work under that kind of microscope this time?Ferrell: I think it’s been a little harder and there’s been various photos of people in the movie, all of which I’ll deny … and yet somehow we’ve been able to keep 80% of what’s going to happen under wraps. That was one of the advantages of shooting in Atlanta. We were originally just going to shoot the whole thing in New York, but for budget reasons it made more sense. The four days we shot in New York, crazy crowds turned out. We realized it was a blessing to shoot down there without anyone knowing what we were doing. Adam and I put pressure on ourselves at the same time. If you’re going to make a sequel, it should be equally as crazy as the first one and hopefully surprising. That’s been the goal.anchorman-2-sequel-image-will-ferrellConsidering how much people love the movie, are you surprised it took this long for a sequel to come out?Ferrell: Not really, because in a weird way … we’ve never made a sequel to films we’ve done because we’ve just been anti-sequel. We thought why not explore a brand new idea as opposed to revisiting something we already made. So that kept us from thinking about it. I don’t know what chipped away at it, but I think we just started saying casually, “Well, if there’s one we would make a sequel to, it would probably be Anchorman, but we’re still never going to make that sequel.” And then I think something just clicked where, “Why not?” Those guys get to make six Ocean’s Eleven and no one seems to beat them up for it, so c’mon! We can make a sequel!It seems like listening to Adam on set, the way you work has not changed over time and you’re still able to be inventive. Is that something that you look forward to in working with him, that special connection you guys have?Ferrell: Yeah, we obviously have the same thing when we write and then on the set. I keep trying to tell him, he gets frustrated on other movies that we produce, or other movies where he’s like, “Why doesn’t everybody work in this style?” And I tell him, “Adam, you’re literally one in a generation of someone who can just sit on a microphone and write in your head as the film.” He says, “It’s easy! Just throw lines out!” “No, not the way … directors like control. And you’re just the opposite; you want everybody to just chip in and you’ll sort it out later.”But it’s unlike any other experience when we get together and get to do a movie, and the entire cast felt that way too, especially for Paul and Steve and David and I, “This is the best!” It creates this healthy little competition where you know Adam’s going to come with a line, so then you’re thinking of lines and there’s this taut string that’s all between the four of us in a scene and it makes for some great comedy.It seems like the teaser trailer is a great example of the way you guys are able to riff. Getting two totally different teasers out of the same basic setup.Ferrell: Yeah, we just stick with those setups and just roll the camera and came up with a bunch of different alts.anchorman-2-legend-continues-rudd-carell-koechner-ferrellCan you describe the feeling of getting the whole Channel 4 news team back?Ferrell: It was obviously, after a couple of weeks, it was like we were back to the first one. It was just as much fun. Those three guys especially are a unique blend, that they really love to just have fun with the crew and keep things light and then are very good in the moment of just coming up with stuff on their feet. We’re pretty comfortable. That first two weeks though, it’s a little different for me because I wrote the script and I’ve done Ron Burgundy occasionally here and there and I’ve still walked in his shoes every now and then. The guys haven’t done it that much, so their first couple days of filming, they felt like they were walking on the moon and they’re like, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or say. This feels off.”  We kept saying, “Trust me, it’s great! It looks good to us.” Once we crossed that threshold, we were right back into that same rhythm that we were on the first one.”It’s amazing how on cue those dolphins are with you every time.Ferrell: Yeah, they’re definitely an intelligent creature. It’s a good thing we workshopped with them for two-and-a-half minutes [laughs] through basic improv classes, Second City.Do you like having the stache back?Ferrell: I like that I don’t have to worry about it falling off in the middle of a take. In terms of lifestyle? No. It’s been a burden on my family. Everyone hates it. It’s like the texture of horse hair so it’s very itchy. My children are very ready for it to be gone.When can you shave it off? Is today your last day of shooting?Ferrell: No, I’ve got some more photoshoots and stuff so another week.You mentioned you had a spirit of competition amongst you guys. Who’s the biggest diva on the set? Now that it’s been 10 years and a lot’s happened.Ferrell: If I had to pick one person, it wouldn’t be a human. I’d say it’s Baxter. Horribly demanding. Three separate trailers. Could never get him to come out. It was a certain type of dog food. Filet-shaped pieces of filet mignon, batter-dipped … extravagant demands. Almost cost us the entire shoot.Why do you think other comedy sequels have failed?Ferrell: I haven’t really thought about that. We just wanted to write something that would hopefully stand on its own even if you hadn’t seen the first movie. Just to still be interesting and original and have that mix of part of the audience laughing to the other part of the audience sitting there going, “Why are they doing this?” I think the goal is to get 20% of the audience to not get this movie.anchorman-2-legend-continues-will-ferrell-christina-applegateHorror films and comedy depend in some extent on involuntary reactions, which makes sequels harder. So you had to take characters and put them in a different setting, just to do something new with them?Ferrell: I think it was our natural impulse just to do that anyway. I don’t think we put too much weight on … I think it just naturally happens if you’re interested in creating a new story, it’ll stamp out the curse of the sequel. It’s not like we’re sitting there going, “Oh, we gotta make sure!” It’s just about what’s amusing to us. The one thing that was hard was juggling the old characters with a bunch of new characters we wanted to introduce and that’s going to be a challenge in the editing room, finding enough screentime for everybody.

Will Ferrell Talks ANCHORMAN 2:

THE LEGEND CONTINUES continued on page 2

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Speaking of Atlanta, that really is the birthplace of the 24-hour news cycle. So to some extent, you guys were there in the place where it happened, so did it help you guys? Were you able to talk to people who were there from the beginning of it?

Ferrell: As usually is the case, we did a little bit of research prior to writing, then throw it all away and then don’t talk to anyone. We did more research on the first one than we did on this one, partly because there’s so much you can comment on the 24-hour news cycle; you see it every day, it’s there in front of you. Whereas in the first one, we really did talk to a bunch of local news guys. We wanted to see what that world was like. Here we felt like we want to comment on what they show on the news but the behind-the-scenes stuff we’ll just make up.

It’s always the funny period stuff that you guys pick up, just that crazy 70s stuff.

Ferrell: Yeah. This was more the game of commenting on … Ron foreshadows a lot of things that he thinks are going to happen. We make a joke about … so I get this call from these people who want me to invest in a company. They want to charge a dollar … they’re going to sell water, regular water, put it in bottles and charge a buck a bottle. Crazy, right? [laughs] If you get a call from Gina Sparkletts, run for the hills. So he’s constantly poopooing things that are about to be huge moneymakers. That was the game for this one.

The first movie is so insanely playful amongst fans. Did you ever think about bringing that stuff back, or do you want to avoid some of the catchphrases that came out of it?

Ferrell: There are some things that we did, but we’ve kind of lucked into being quoted. It’s not like we sit around and come up with a line and go, “People are gonna quote it!” We never even know if it’s going to make it into a movie. As was with the first one, it’s the ones that you would never even peg. “Milk was a bad choice,” or “I love lamp,” those were just things we said on the day. It’s far from an exact science; it’s not a science at all. We just throw these things out. It’s amazing to me, if you just listed them in a row of things that are … they’re just not even jokes, they’re mere declarations. Lucky for us we just walked into it.

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What has that been like to watch it become iconic over the last 10 years? It seems like everyone has seen it by this point.

Ferrell: It’s fascinating to have gone from … the whole journey from struggle to getting it made, to you discovering the script, to people … then, when it came out in theaters, it had a very mixed reaction in a way.  We would get people who had like a comedy litmus test for friends. I have a very good friend who lives in San Diego and he went with another couple and they left half-way through the movie.  This couple, the wife was like, “Your friend’s not funny, just so you know.” And then, our worst reviews were in the San Diego papers, and now it’s like they love it. So to watch that and watch it just … almost like the way, if someone gave you a wine and said, “Don’t drink it for 10 years.” It’s just accrued in value and we haven’t done anything. It was something that we couldn’t … no one wanted to make it. So that’s fascinating.

Can you talk about some of the new characters?

Ferrell: We have James Marsden who plays Jack Lime, who is GNN’s lead anchor, and rumors are he’s making close to a million dollars a year. He’s our nemesis.

How’s Marsden?

Ferrell: He’s awesome, he was so great. He did a read through for us just as a favor and they ended up casting him. That was James Marsden and Josh Lawson, who plays Catch Allenby, who is our owner of GNN, kind of a Ted Turner meets Rupert Murdoch meets Richard Branson, kinda rolled into one. His Australian accent sometimes gets so thick that we can’t understand it. Those guys we cast just off of our read through.  Meagan Good plays this woman, Linda Jackson, who’s kind of our boss at GNN. Dylan Baker plays this guy Freddy Shap, a low-level producer who finds Ron Burgundy after this moment and says, “Do you want to get back in the news game? We’re starting this thing called 24-hour news.”  Those are the brand-new, cast, and Christina [Applegate] is back.

A lot of paparazzi shots show cameos from SPOILER Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Was it hard to get such big names back or were they totally on board right from the get-go?

Ferrell:  We got lucky. We had a couple for the most part we got such great people to come be in the movie. There were a couple instances where we heard from so-and-so and they want to be in the movie and they’ll do anything, “Okay, let’s offer them this.” “Nope.” [laughs] But for the most part, we got some great people who were dying to be in the movie … and then we got some people who were dying to be in the movie that we didn’t care about so much who would call literally every week.

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When you get a big name wanting to come in, do you write them a new part?

Ferrell: No, we kinda plug them in. We had a bunch of parts that we really wanted to start doing cameos with so we just plugged them in. But everyone came and they were totally game with the insanity that we bring.

Is it frustrating that this time so many of the cameos had been photographed? On the first one with the fight, no one was there and no one knows what was going on, but I’ve seen so many faces now.

Ferrell: Well, no one knows what they’re for, so …

So knowing they’re in it doesn’t ruin it?

Ferrell: We don’t have a choice.  It’s like when everyone thought I was replacing Steve Carell in The Office, anyone who asked, “It’s so great that you’re replacing him!” I’d say, “Yes it is, isn’t it? It’s a real honor?”

Has that microscope been the biggest difference between shooting the two movies?

Ferrell: I think that’s obviously been a huge difference. The expectation level … there was no expectation level on the first one. We just put our best foot forward and know it can range from working really well or we might miss it. We’ve made a very big adventurous movie once again for a budget that’s … everyone really sacrificed because they wanted to make this movie, so everyone’s doing it at price.

Is there an expectation that there’s going to be a third one?

Ferrell: I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re even thinking that far ahead. I think we’re just curious to see how it’s going to play out. It’s obvious that, it seems like there’s a great amount of anticipation for it, more than anything I’ve been involved with. It’s uncharted waters for us. If it really goes bonkers, and we get offered to make a third one, yeah, who knows.

There were some things that you had developed early that you ended up not making. There was this and there was the used car salesman. Is there anything that you and Adam have come up with that you haven’t gotten around to yet, or are still looking to do at some point?

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Ferrell: There really isn’t anything on the shelf. We’ve been lucky that after a couple of tries we’ve been able to make everything. It’s tough for us because we could get in a room and come up with 20 ideas, but then we’d get tired because we’d realize we’d have to write them.

What makes one stand out as the one you want to follow?

Ferrell: I couldn’t tell you. On Step Brothers, for instance, we were sitting around with John [C. Reilly] and doing a bunch of ideas and we thought we had one, and then Adam as an afterthought goes, “I thought of one other thing. What if you guys are two 40-year-old men who still live at home and your single parents meet and you’re forced to be step brothers?” And we ditched every idea we had spent the whole dinner at Dantanna’s. Literally we were like, “Oh, that’s it.” I don’t know why it just struck us as … I don’t know. Something will just be it.

Speaking of Step Brothers, are you open to a sequel?

Ferrell: We really were, prior to this. [laughs] That’s the other thing, we love those characters and we had a great idea for that one, too. I think we’re reticent of stepping into that thing of, oh now we’re going to make sequels for everything we’ve done. You don’t want to be accused of that. I don’t think, I don’t know. Maybe we’re being too harsh on ourselves. I would say not in the near future.