Adam McKay talks about split with Will Ferrell, admits that he "fucked up"
Adam McKay Details Will Ferrell Split, Says Actor Hasn’t Returned His Emails: ‘I F*cked Up’ https://t.co/ROL6ldTdad pic.twitter.com/LdxXa8y0qG
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) November 29, 2021
• In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last month, Will Ferrell was asked about the dissolution of his partnership with longtime collaborator Adam McKay. Ferrell kept things cordial and simple. McKay wanted to grow and expand the company's influence at a rapid rate while Ferrell admitted he didn't have the "bandwidth" or desire to keep up with McKay's drive.
• In a new profile for Vanity Fair, McKay (who is promoting his new Netflix movie Don't Looks Up) casts the breakup in a decidedly more bitter light.
• McKay says some issues started after the success of The Big Short. The duo's shared manager would repeatedly ask when the two would produce another Ferrell-starring vehicle. McKay would drop that manager and in 2015 he also quit Funny or Die (the website the two founded together). The site took a sponsorship from Shell Oil, a move he criticized and openly opposed.
• Factions began to form inside their production company with "McKay people" and "Ferrell people" constantly at odds. Ferrell suggested dissolving the company three separate times but McKay didn't want to deal with hurt feelings so discussions were always tabled.
• Things came to a head when McKay was in pre-production on his new limited series for HBO. The series is about the 1980s Lakers, and Ferrell (a diehard Lakers fan) was cast as legendary owner Jerry Buss. He wasn't McKay's first choice (John C. Reilly was). "The truth is, the way the show was always going to be done, it’s hyperrealistic, and Ferrell just doesn’t look like Jerry Buss, and he’s not that vibe of a Jerry Buss. And there were some people involved who were like, ‘We love Ferrell, he’s a genius, but we can’t see him doing it.’ It was a bit of a hard discussion."
• McKay didn't have that discussion with Ferrell and he again says that he didn't want to hurt Ferrell's feelings. So instead he recast the role behind Ferrell's back. McKay never gave Ferrell a phone call to inform him of the decision, but John C. Reilly, one of Ferrell's closest friends, did.
• Ferrell was infuriated and the two have not spoken in a few years. McKay says their final phone call where they made the decision to dissolve the company was "curt" and the two essentially said their goodbyes to each other, and he notes the call basically ended with Ferrell saying "have a good life."
• McKay says he's emailed Ferrell multiple times in an attempt to patch up their decades long friendship, but hasn't received a response. He says Ferrell, “took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for.” Ferrell declined to comment on the story.
• McKay notes that he and Ferrell characterizes the end of their partnership as a "Hollywood cliche" and says, “maybe there was a little shadow in there where I wasn’t able to confront a harsher, darker side of myself, that would ultimately err on the side of making the right casting choice over a lifelong friendship.”
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