KEY POINTS:
Prolific funny guys Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly sing, then talk, to Joanna Hunkin about their latest comedy outing and having so many balls in the air.
Trying to get a straight answer out of Will Ferrell is notoriously difficult. Put him in a room with
his friend and co-star John C. Reilly, as they talk over one another and giggle like school children, and it becomes nigh impossible.
As the pair come on the line, they begin singing a harmonised version of Toto's 80s hit Rosanna, personalising it to my name, Joanna. "We threw you with that song, didn't we?" says Ferrell, channelling his alter ego, lothario news anchor Ron Burgundy. "We disarmed you."
But somewhere, in between the ridiculous, deadpan jokes, there is the occasional truth. A small glimmer of fact that shines out from a stack of silly fiction.
TimeOut caught up with the pair, on a reverberating speakerphone, as they flew into Sydney to promote their latest comedy offering Step Brothers - a film about two grown men, who still live at home and become roommates and best friends when Ferrell's mother marries Reilly's father.
In the film, the men (though in typical Ferrell fashion, the characters are both naive man-boys) are sworn enemies, until a mutual hatred of Ferrell's brother Derek unites them. Which begs the question, did Ferrell and Reilly befriend each other instantly when they first met or was there some initial rivalry and tension?
"[We met] Through our friend Molly Shannon. Molly and John were working on a film together. She said 'I'd love for you to meet my friend John C. Reilly, he's a big fan," recalls Ferrell.
"And I said, 'Well this is going to be weird because I can't stand him. But I said, I'm a gentleman, I will come to the brunch."
"I still don't care for him," Reilly interjects, before giving the semi-serious answer. "There's been some healthy one-upmanship in there, but that's good for comedy."
"And a lot of sword fighting," adds Ferrell.
One can only hope Ferrell is joking, though a certain scene in the film suggests otherwise. It's one of several physical jokes that sets Step Brothers apart from the pair's previous films, pushing the boundaries of taste, including one scene which features ... well, er, a drum kit and prosthetic testicles.
"We didn't really set out to [push boundaries]," explains Reilly. "We didn't say, 'okay Steve Carrell showed his butt in Get Smart, we've got to show testicles'. It's more like we approached the story like any other writers would."
Ferrell cuts in: "We definitely enjoyed the freedom of getting to work on an R-rated movie, as opposed to within the confines of PG13. But that was more about being able to pursue jokes to the furthest extent that we could. If it happened to turn out vulgar at times, then so be it. But it wasn't about ..."
Trying to shock people? "Exactly."
The film is the pair's second together and comes just two years after their first, Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Written and directed by Adam McKay, who also directed Talladega Nights and Anchorman, Step Brothers sees several familiar faces rejoin the team, including Anchorman's Seth Rogen and Talladega Night's Rob Riggle.
But the pair say there is no real rhyme or reason as to who works on their films - they simply work with people they can depend on. Given the pair's propensity to go off-script and off-story completely, it can be hard work keeping up with them. In fact, Reilly claims there was no script for the film. It was entirely improvised.
"We just took suggestions from the background players," deadpans Ferrell.
"We didn't know we were going to have people playing our parents in the movie," says Reilly.
"That's the beauty of CGI," chuckles Ferrell. "They can just throw it in later."
"Mary Steenburgen [who plays Ferrell's mother] was on the lot already doing a TV show, so we just grabbed her and said 'hey, can you come do this thing for a second'," adds Reilly.
It's tangents like this that lead you to believe Ferrell when he says they shot a million and a half feet of film. "The rough cut was four hours long. It's kind of a blessing and curse," he says. "You have so much material to choose from but you also know it has to be in the neighbourhood of an hour and a half. You have to extract some things, it's always an agonising process."
Hot on the heels of Semi-Pro and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, it seems barely a month goes by that one of these actors doesn't have a film screening at the cinema. After several weeks of publicity and promotion for Step Brothers, the jet-lagged duo say they are finally ready to take a break, both planning to take the rest of the year off. But as the conversation turns to the possibility of an Anchorman sequel, they become reinvigorated.
"We've been talking about it. I think we would like to do it but there's nothing beyond that. There's no script or even an idea yet," says Ferrell.
"How about a really macho set-up. Like the news team work on an oil rig together," says Reilly. "And they just [grunts] get cramps in their neck. And they massage each other [groans]. 'Ahh, it's a hot day, let's go drill for oil.' Something like that ..."
Ferrell chuckles as he agrees, "Yeah, I think that's it."
They may be joking, but like much of what they say, there is probably a grain of truth in it.
LOWDOWN
Who: Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, comedy buddies
What: Step Brothers
When: Opens at cinemas today
