Will Ferrell talks to Nuts...
The Campaign trash talking clip
Read an exclusive interview with two of our favourite funny men as Nuts caught up with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis who playing feuding Southern politicians on the North Carolina State campaign trail in one of last year's funniest films from Austin Powers director Jay Roach. And check out a cool trash talking clip from The Campaign available to own on DVD and Blu-ray Monday January 21st.
The Nuts Interview: Will Ferrell & Zach Galifianakis
Hi Will & Zach! How’s it going?
Zach: Would you like a gummy bear? They’re really nice…
Will: Stop fooling around Zach. Let’s do this interview!
In The Campaign you play a pair of duelling North Carolina politicians. Would you like to get involved for real?
Zach: Politics must be a hard life. You have cameras following you everywhere. You can’t get away with anything. You can’t get a hooker no more.
Will: That’s a real shame.
Tell us about your characters?
Will: I did the George Bush thing for so long it had to be completely different. There are similarities with their buffoonery but Cam Brady needed a different voice and the kind of hair that could lift a baby. He’s an over-sexed Blue Dog Democrat and proof that going to law school doesn’t stop you being a dumb ass.
Zach: Marty Huggins is the effeminate black sheep of a political family who becomes a pawn to battle Brady’s incumbent. But he’s just a simpleton who runs a tourist office for a small town that nobody visits. Marty struggles with the real world - someone who can’t work a door is pretty clueless.
Are they based on any real politicians?
Will: We took inspiration from them. Cam’s hair is taken from John Edwards (former Vice-Presidential candidate from North Carolina).
Zach: Marty Huggins moustache is from Olympia Snowe (a Republican Senator). She’s a Greek lady. That was a hairy Greek joke. But really the truth is stranger than fiction when people like Sarah Palin get plucked from obscurity and then their ego gets in the way and they start believing their own hype.
Will: When we were writing the script there was a campaign ad on TV with a guy dressed up as a sheep. He pretended to be eating grass with the sheep and then he looked up and had bright red eyes because he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing… And this was a guy running for the United States Senate with a demon sheep ad. It’s become a circus!
Did any real-life political stories inspire the film?
Will: Politics is like a reality show now. When we were filming a Republican Presidential candidate’s affair was exposed but his approval rating went up!
Zach: Truth is stranger than fiction so we put that in the movie. Politics is hard to have faith in - it’s become a circus!
If you were running for political office what would your slogan be?
Will: Keep the party going all night long. Yeah!
Zach: My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hon? I don’t know how that translates in the real world. It doesn’t make sense but it rhymes!
Is there a policy you would focus on if you were President?
Will: Make it legal to turn left on red. We need that freedom!
Zach: Also Will has privately mentioned that he wants to make all Canadians go back to Canada.
Will: And I’m a big advocate of free healthcare. For people over 97. I’m a fan of what Arnold Schwarzenegger achieved in California.
Zach: And you’re a fan of having a child with your maid out of wedlock… But seriously no one wants to talk about gun control. We’re a country and shouldn’t be run by lobbyists.
So how far would you go to win votes?
Will: I can’t think of anything crazier than my character Cam Brady stalking his opponent’s wife, having sex with her, filming it and turning it into a campaign ad on TV. How do you beat that?
Zach: Silvio Berlusconi? But if it was me… If you make enough promises that are impossible to keep, people seem to be suckers for that kind of thing.
If you wanted our vote how would you sell yourself and put down your opponent?
Will: I’m always on time. Zach is hairy. He has a lot of body hair.
Zach: I don’t have any body hair! You know this. All those times we’d work out together and I’d peel my shirt off…
Will: I’m sorry, I’m thinking of someone else.
Are you as competitive as Cam and Marty with each other in real life?
Will: The thing is…
Zach: Well…
Will: When Zach…
Zach: When we were modeling on the runways of Milan… But really if you’re competitive as an actor it makes things tough. On set you have to be helpful because it’s a collaborative process when you’re improvising around the predicaments laid out in the script.
Will: I’ve never understood why you wouldn’t just want to entertain the best idea in the room as opposed to keeping score. At the end of the day we just want to make the funniest movie possible so everybody wins.
So if you were President what would you do?
Zach: The big difference over here is that the US is full of religious nutjobs. Great Britain seems less so.
Will: Your candidates don’t put God as part of their manifesto. We need to change the way we do things.
You broke the golden rule and worked with children and animals. How tough was that?
Zach: There was a python I had to work with that chose to use me as a toilet and then tried to strangle me. That didn’t make the movie.
Will: There’s always the DVD. The animal trainer told me, “Don’t worry Will, these snakes never bite.” But the guy playing the preacher in a scene with me was really scared and got bitten. Twice!
And Will, you punched a baby!
Will: Don’t worry it was a highly trained stunt baby. It was so tough it laughed in my face. I believe its first words were: “Is that all you got?”
Zach: After The Hangover I won’t do a movie unless there’s a baby in it…
Nicolas Cage calls his acting style nouveau shamanic. How would you desribe yours?
Zach: What does that mean!
Will: It sounds very Cagean… But what if you don’t consider yourself a very good actor. I don’t know… Lucky. Lucky style?
Zach: For comedians it’s kind of different because you have to figure the way to make people laugh - we need a physical reaction from the audience. But with action stars people just sit there and watch. Comedians need a loose-ness in their style to make the fun happen.
Will, when you last talked to Nuts you joked the sequel to Anchorman would be porn. What can you tell us and will there be a role for Zach?
Will: We could only be so lucky to get Zach…
Zach: We’ve got that on record!
Will: It would be premature to say anything. I’m still writing the script with Adam Mckay. As soon as I feel I’ve written something really funny and share it with someone we inevitably change it… Then people wonder what the hell happened with the movie!
So you’ve enjoyed working together?
Zach: I don’t know how I scammed my way into this. It’s bizarre… I was telling diarrhoea jokes in coffee houses five years ago!
Will: I just hope Zach lives up to his end of the deal and makes people laugh. Because I know I’m funny.
Zach: It’s easy working with Will because he’s so open and giving and has no ego. I sound like I’m in love with him… Will is the great comic actor of our time.
Will: It’s true. I’m ego-less. In fact I suffer from low self-esteem. Zach has helped me with that.
What’s the weirdest place you’ve been recognized or the strangest thing a fan has done?
Zach: I’ve been followed into bathrooms by teenagers who keep talking to me while I’m at the urinal! That, I don’t like.
Will: In a public bathroom you learn to go into the stall. Come on Zach you should know this by now! It’s awkward when people saddle up next to you. They say things like, “I can’t believe I’m peeing next to Will Ferrell!”
Interview by Dan Brightmore
Comments do not always reflect the views of Nuts, or IPC Media, for guidelines visit our Ts & Cs page
