The controversial role Will Ferrell quit after two days: “It’s time to stop this forever”
Comedy is supposed to push buttons and boundaries, but there’s an infinitesimally fine line between threading that needle and veering into the realm of bad taste, as Will Ferrell discovered when he quit a movie role just 48 hours after his casting had been officially announced.
The backlash was so swift, overwhelming, and personal that the actor felt he had no choice, even if his representatives did their best to try and frame his departure as anything other than an admission of defeat. It was doomed from the start, though, and he obviously knew it.
Even though he was one of Hollywood’s biggest comedy stars during his peak, Ferrell was never regarded as particularly offensive. He played plenty of man-children, bumbling idiots, and grating characters, but he wasn’t the sort of performer who drew widespread complaints from going too far.
However, when it was revealed that he’d signed on to headline a comedy about Ronald Reagan, the pitchforks were instantly sharpened. The script, written by Mike Rosolio, clearly had some backers within the business, seeing as it was named on the Black List of unproduced screenplays in 2015, and was even the subject of a live reading that featured Josh Brolin as the former president.
The story began at the beginning of Reagan’s second term, and the plot revolved around the White House incumbent’s slide into Alzheimer’s, with an intern given the job of convincing the former silver-screen favourite that he was an actor playing the role of a president in a fictional motion picture.
Needless to say, that didn’t go down too well, especially with the Reagan family. His son, Michael, posted on social media that the people involved “should be ashamed” for green-lighting the film, while his daughter, Patti Davis, penned an open letter to Ferrell, which ended with her saying, “Perhaps you would like to explain to them how this disease is suitable material for a comedy.”
Meanwhile, the Alzheimer’s Association released a statement, saying it was “appalled that anyone would plan to develop a film that satirises an individual with Alzheimer’s or another dementia,” asking, “Would filmmakers consider using a fatal form of cancer or another deadly disease for comedy? It’s time to stop this forever.”
The news broke on April 27th, 2016, that Ferrell was attached to star and produce in Reagan, and on April 29th, the news broke that he’d pulled out of the project. “The Reagan script is one of a number of scripts that had been submitted to Will Ferrell, which he had considered,” his team offered. “While it is by no means an ‘Alzheimer’s comedy’ as has been suggested, Mr Ferrell is not pursuing this project.”
The timing was nothing if not suspect, and it can’t be a coincidence that it took the actor just 48 hours to pull the plug and realise that it may not be the wisest idea, especially when the time between was filled with almost nothing but shock and outrage.
