I love Will Ferrell comedies, at least the good ones. While I understand why he’s trying to expand his audience and do drama, I relish films like Old School, Anchorman and Talladega Nights – films that allow him to play a character that use his brilliant comedic ability. Thankfully in the film Blades of Glory Will is doing another in the line of those kinds of roles.

Will plays a man named Chad Michael Michaels and he’s one of the best figure skaters in the world. His main competition is Jimmy – who is played by Jon Heder. After a mishap they are both banned from the sport and only when they realize that they are eligible for team competition do they both get back on their skates and team up to try and win the gold. If you like Will Ferrell and dig his comedies, prepare to laugh a lot.

Just like the other Blades of Glory interviews that I just posted, for full effect you should listen to the audio of this interview which you can download here as an MP3.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet for Blades of Glory you can watch it here. The film comes out this Friday at theaters everywhere.

I’ll warn you about some slight spoilers in the interview – nothing that will ruin the movie but it will spoil some of the gags. You are warned.

Will Ferrell walks in and has his hair large and proud (was seen at this years Oscar’s)

Question: Will, when you’re done with your hair, can I just borrow it?

Will Ferrell: Absolutely.  You can borrow it now.  Let me get it off. 

Q: We have to talk about crotch proximity ‘cause you guys got very close to each other.  Did you have to set any boundaries?

Jon Heder: The contract said, “No less than 2 centimeters.”

WF: I had a restraining order against his crotch.  We really didn’t talk about it, did we?

JH: I think, all in all, it ended up being mostly effects.

WF: That was a stunt crotch.  I don’t think I touched his crotch.

JH: I even think the upside legs was actually fake.  It wasn’t even someone else’s. 

WF: Oh, really?

JH: Remember?

WF: Movie magic.

Q: Which was harder to negotiate, the crotch proximity or the boob grabbing with Jenna Fischer?

WF: Well, the boob grabbing.  That was ad-libbed.  I just thought, “This will be fun, I’m just going to do it,” and 80 takes later . . . [Laughs] I had to get it right.  And, it remained in the movie.

JH: As soon as you did the first establishing shot, you had to match that.

Q: Did you know each other beforehand?  You have such a great rapport.  Did that happen as soon as you guys met?

WF: It was instantaneous, wasn’t it?

JH: I was just [in awe].  When we first met, it was on the ice and we were on level playing ground.  All bets were off.

WF: Right, right. 

JH: I think we were just scared.

WF: Yeah.  We met in the parking lot of Pickwick Ice Rink in Burbank.  It was like, “Hey, nice to meet you.”  “Yeah, you too.”  “This should be fun, right?”  “It’s going to be hard, huh?”  “You don’t know how to skate, do you?” “No.”  “I don’t either.”  “Okay, I’ll see you later.” [Laughs] That was kind of it.

JH: I was like, “I’ve got to lift you?”

WF: “No, I think I will be doing the lifting.  I have to lift you.”

Q: Now that you did learn to skate, who loves it and who hates it?

JH: I love it. 

WF: He does.  He loves it.  I don’t hate it.

JH: He doesn’t hate anything. 

WF: But, yeah, I haven’t skated since the movie.  But, he’s only skated once.

JH: I’ve gone only once since because I’ve been busy. 

WF: He’s a big talker.  He was like, “I’m going to skate all the time.”

JH: And, I am.  I’m going to. [Laughs] And, by all the time, I mean that I’m going to try to make it a regular, once a month to semi-annual thing. [Laughs] 

Q: Will, can you tell us something about Jon that we would not know?  And, Jon can you tell us something about Will?

WF: Let me see . . . Jon has a twin brother.  Did you know that?

Q: I did.

WF: Oh, shoot. [Laughs]

JH: Everybody knows that. 

WF: Well, his twin brother is really mean.  Jon’s nice, but this guy -- he scares me.

JH: He’s the evil one.

WF: He’s the evil one.  And, he would come to set and he wouldn’t even talk to me.  He’d just sit across the room and go (does an evil laugh).  I was like, “What is he doing?,” and Jon was like, “That’s just my evil twin brother, don’t worry about it.”

JH: He’ll mess with you, but it’s not a big deal. 

WF: So, that’s something about Jon. [Laughs]

JH: Will doesn’t grow facial hair.  It’s all down here (points to Will’s chest). 

WF: Yeah.

JH: It all goes there.  He never had to shave.

WF: For some reason, the beard follicles are actually right here, over my breasts, so I grow a chest beard.  So, I have to shave that down.  So, those are two things.  Jon didn’t know I was left-handed.

JH: That’s true.  Are you?

WF: Yeah. 

JH: [Laughs] I didn’t know that, but neither did they.

Q: Speaking of the chest beard, when you get a script, do you immediately try to find the scene where you get to take off as many of your clothes as you possibly can?

WF: No.  I actually hope that there isn’t. 

JH: He gave it to me.

WF: Yeah, I gave it to Jon this time.  But, yeah, in this one, I kind of do a version of it with the tattoo thing, which I thought was really funny that you reveal this stupid life story through tattoos. [Laughs] But, we got to make some crazy, funny tattoos.  That was amazing.  And, in fact, we were just laughing that Jimmy has no sense of the fact that there’s this gross guy with his shirt off.  He’s just wrapped in the story, like “Really, wow, cool.  What’s that one?”

JH: And then, Chazz gets the tattoo of Jimmy.

Q: Were you tempted to keep that one for awhile?

WF: I was.  That was the funniest thing.  The make-up tattoos are so real looking and they last for a good couple of days, so I would forget.  On the weekends, I’d have these weird tattoos.  My wife would be like, “Oh, gross, what is that?” “It’s just a wolf.  I’m the lone wolf.”

Q: So, the spandex skater costumes vs. the elf suit -- compare and contrast.
WF: Well, they were very similar.  The elfin tights were actually quite functional.  A lot of times, in that movie, it was very cold where we were filming, so I was actually thankful to have them.  The lycra suits, I was thankful to have them in a different sense, just for the character, ‘cause they were funny looking.

JH: It took some help to get into.  But, you didn’t have to wear a dancer’s belt in elf, did you?

WF: No, I did.

JH: You did?

WF: Yeah.  I had already experienced it, yeah.

JH: So, he was totally just being nice to me when I had to wear a dancer’s belt for the first time.  You were obviously trying to make me feel better by saying, “Yeah, these really suck, don’t they?”  You were used to them. [Laughs]

WF: I didn’t want you to feel left out.

Q: Did you want to draw the line with the fluffy thing on the butt of the peacock costume?

JH: I remember seeing it in the design, but I always forgot about it because it’s so light, and I never saw it.  People would say something and I’d be like, “Oh, that’s right, I’ve got feathers back there.”  So, no, I did not draw the line.

Q: How much input did you guys have on your costumes?

WF: We had a little bit.  Julie Weiss, who’s the wardrobe designer is kind of a mad genius, in a way.  She’d be like, “I found this leather jacket in the hatchback of my neighbor’s car.  Try it on.” [Laughs] You’d be like, “Oh, it’s perfect.”  “I knew it!  You’re going to wear that today.” [Laughs] She really designed these amazing costumes.  She would call me on the phone and ask me things like, “What would your character keep in a duffle bag?” [Laughs] “I don’t know yet.  I haven’t even thought about it.”  She was like, “I see you as a cross between Steven Tyler and . . .” this person or that person.  But, yeah, in terms of the skater stuff, she totally designed all that.

JH: The peacock outfit was kind of my idea because we had seen clips and footage of other skaters, just to study and research, and Johnny Weir had this swan outfit.  It was kind of a famous routine.  It was very serious, but the glove was a swan, and I was like, “That would be funny to do, but do it as a peacock.”  Skaters are very much like peacocks.  It was amazing.  I just remember throwing that idea out, and then, the next thing I knew, she had this bejeweled glove and the eye, and everything.  It was like, wow! 

WF: The first time I saw him in his outfit, I was really jealous. [Laughs] I was like, “Aw, you’re a peacock.  Of course.  You get a gloved hand and everything.  I’m only fire.”

JH: But, he had fire coming out of his hand.  That was pretty cool.