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What would it be like to be raised by elves in the North Pole and then, when you grew too tall, sent away to the unfamiliar streets of New York to find your real father? That's the situation facing Buddy, the latest scene-stealing character brought to life by former "Saturday Night Live" funnyman Will Ferrell in "Elf." MTV News' Vanessa White Wolf caught up with Ferrell to talk about cookie-making sellouts, thigh-hugging costumes and body odor issues.
MTV: How would you rank your portrayal of Buddy the elf among other portrayals of elves, such as Legolas from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy?
Will Ferrell: Um, that's a good portrayal. That's a tough one to compete with. Buddy is not very violent, though. I don't think he could ever ride a horse or shoot arrows — he'd probably break his neck immediately. I think Buddy ranks right up their with um, Hermey, the dentist elf in [the 1964 animated TV special "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer"]. I think he can hold his own.
MTV: What about the Keebler elves?
Ferrell: Oh, Keebler. Buddy is vastly superior, vastly superior to a Keebler elf. They are kind of the lowest rung of the elf ladder, I hate to say. I hate to be that kind of a person, but no, other elves will shun the Keeblers because they are so commercial.
MTV: You have a really lovely costume in this movie that was probably not a lot of fun to wear around New York City. What was more embarrassing: wearing the elf costume or the streaking you did in "Old School"?
Ferrell: Well ... the streaking. Any time you have clothes on it's easier than no clothes, if that makes sense. The tights don't leave a lot of margin for error, though. Luckily I have a commanding and exquisite physique, so the tights just enhanced all of that.
MTV: "Elf" has a lot of very old-fashioned, very classic elements to it, but it's also really fresh and really new. How do you think this ranks among other Christmas movies?
Ferrell: Well, you know, we really wanted to at least err on that side of giving it a kind of classic feel. We make reference to the Rankin/Bass animation you see in the "Rudolph" special, with the design of the sets and the forced perspective of that. ... And the way New York is shot, kind of a "Miracle on 34th Street" type of feel, even though those are kind of more classic movies, they make the film seem more unique because we haven't seen that in awhile. So we were hoping the best version of this would actually reflect that, and that's kind of the feedback we are getting, and that's great. We wanted also to be really specific in the humor as well, and I think in terms of playing the character that it could never be a character that was ever making fun of the genre. I had to play it straight the whole way through and really be earnest in my exuberance, which is not hard to do, so it was good, it was fun.
MTV: When you used camera angles to exaggerate perspective, making your character appear much taller than the real elves, how did that work in terms of shooting? Bob Newhart was saying he had to stand nine feet away from you.
Ferrell: Absolutely. Yeah, that was one of the more challenging parts of the film, only because it was a pain shooting at times because your eye line had to be exactly specific, and if there was ever movement at all in the scene, you had to pretend to be looking at each other. It was very tough, and it's a tough thing to light and all these things, but it's so much fun to see it when it works. So we kind of had that in the back of our mind even though we laughed about the fact that we never really got to look at each other the entire time. I acted to a tennis ball on a stick for most of the movie.
MTV: You come from such an improvisational background. How was it working with actors like Newhart, James Caan and Ed Asner, who have more of a traditional, straight-ahead approach?
Ferrell: They kind of just fit right into the fold. If anything, I learned more from them than they did from me. They were like, "Whatever, guy. Do your thing." But I think the way my character was played, and their characters, it was easy for me to kind of bounce off of them and, you know, everyone was up for kind of mixing it up in a way, so it worked out fine.
MTV: Ed Asner said it was a pleasure to work with you once he got over the body odor problem.
Ferrell: Is that what he said?
MTV: "After the BO, it's smooth sailing."
Ferrell: That son of a bitch. I'm gonna fight him in the hallway after this, and that's not a joke. I'm not being funny. I'm gonna fight him.
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Photo: Alan Markfield
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