The TV series that stabbed Will Ferrell in the back: “I should have called him, and I didn’t”
Despite scoring one of the most successful director and comedian collaborations in recent Hollywood memory, it took one TV project to fracture the Adam McKay and Will Ferrell partnership for good, both personally and professionally.
It was over 30 years ago that the two first crossed paths. Initially, McKay had jumped from The Second City improv group to audition as an on-screen personality for Saturday Night Live. He didn’t make it, but the strength of his material won McKay a writer’s gig on the long-running NBC show in 1995, the exact same week Will Ferrell joined the cast for the series’ 21st season.
The two gelled. From their very first sketch together as writer and performer, a VH1 Storytellers spoof depicting Neil Diamond explaining the violently absurd backgrounds to his big hits, Ferrell’s gift for jumping between a vast litany of comedic personas and characters chimed with McKay’s ambitions to step into the director’s chair for Hollywood, making the leap from SNL film skits to immediate success with the pair’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
By 2006, the two were comedy’s hottest duo, launching their joint Gary Sanchez Productions venture, with its Funny or Die video site arriving the next year and further Ferrell vehicles including 2013’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
Yet, on April 8th, 2019, announcements were made that Ferrell and McKay’s partnership had been dissolved amid reported acrimony, the two splitting their company into Ferrell’s Gloria Sanchez Productions and McKay’s Hyperobject Industries. What Happened?
From 2015’s The Big Short, McKay’s left-leaning political inclinations saw his work pursue a more satirical drama direction, later directing Vice’s political profile of former Vice President Dick Cheney and the apocalyptic black comedy Don’t Look Up, films that didn’t feature Ferrell. Trouble was, the two shared the same manager, Jimmy Miller, who reportedly attempted to steer McKay’s work back to a Ferrell vehicle, a complete U-turn away from where the director’s career was heading.
Feelings had cooled as a result, and Gary Sanchez Productions was up in the air several times before agreeing over the phone in a tense exchange on the decision to finally dissolve their long-running venture. “I said, ‘Well, I mean, we’re splitting up the company,’” McKay recounted to Vanity Fair in 2021. “And he basically was like, ‘Yeah, we are,’ and basically was like, ‘Have a good life.’ And I’m like, ‘Fuck, Ferrell’s never going to talk to me again.’ So it ended not well.”
The nail in the coffin of their friendship was hammered by HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, however. McKay had been developing the series as executive producer and eventual director of the pilot, an adaptation of the 2014 Showtime book exploring the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team during their celebrated 1980s win of the NBA championship. A massive Lakers fan, Ferrell had his heart set on the starring role, playing team owner and sports personality Jerry Buss, but McKay had other ideas.
“The truth is, the way the show was always going to be done, it’s hyper-realistic,” McKay explained. “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.”
Winning Time was under the Hyperobject umbrella after the Gary Sanchez split, meaning McKay had the say on casting. Without telling Ferrell, John C Reilly was given the role of Buss, infuriating his former Sanchez partner and scuppering their friendship for good. “I should have called him and I didn’t,” McKay conceded. “And Reilly did, of course, because Reilly, he’s a stand-up guy.”
As of now, supposedly the old comedy duo still haven’t quite rebuilt their friendship. McKay has expressed conciliatory statements expressing an openness to working together again, but so far nothing has materialised. Perhaps the wounds are still too raw? Time’s a healer, and perhaps that Talladega Nights sequel may one day come when the two’ve knocked their heads together.
