Will Ferrell was shocked that “Talladega Nights” was able to satisfy every part of the country.
In an interview with Vanity Fair out Friday, the star of “The Hawk” looked back on his filmography — including “The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” 20 years later.
“When that film came out, a little bit of what I heard about was the reaction to ‘Blazing Saddles’ from Mel Brooks,” Ferrell recalled. “He said that they were really worried about the middle of the country and how they would react to a movie like that. And he said, ‘You know where we sold the most movie tickets? Texas.’”
“And ‘Talladega Nights’ did that. Race fans were satisfied. I had people, NASCAR fans, going, ‘Thanks for being true to the sport.’ I was like, ‘Oh, you’re welcome. Wait, did we? Oh, yeah, we did,’” the comedian continued. “And then people in L.A. and New York going, ‘How do they let you make that movie?’ It was so fun to kind of split the difference and satisfy both audiences.”
Rewatching scenes, Ferrell couldn’t help but laugh at the clips of the family around the dinner table. The moment produced some of the most-quoted lines from the entire film and the cameramen couldn’t even film at points because they were laughing so hard.
“That took all day for maybe a two-minute, two-and-a-half-minute scene. We were having so much fun. I remember feeding lines to the kids, and the camera operator was laughing so hard. He called cut himself,” Ferrell shared. “He was like, ‘I’m sorry. It’s so unprofessional. I can’t stop laughing, and I don’t think you can use that take. The camera’s just bouncing.’ We just kept feeding every line we could think of.”
