How Will Ferrell almost ended up on the wrong side of Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall is one of those acclaimed actors who’s in the unusual position of being simultaneously beloved and rather underrated.
The veteran has been delivering one killer performance after another for decades and decades, and he’s been nominated for countless awards, including seven Oscars. One of those even resulted in a win with a ‘Best Actor’ prize for 1983’s Tender Mercies. However, he’s not a widely-known name like some others in his generation.
He’s not the first name many will think of when asked to list the greatest American actors of all time, but there are many arguments to be made that he deserves to be considered among them. Let’s not forget his show-stealing performance in Apocalypse Now, a film filled with masterful acting showcases. And he does it with only 15 minutes of screen time.
Duvall is certainly an actor who takes his craft incredibly seriously. Comedy legend Will Ferrell, as he recounted in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show, discovered this in somewhat uncomfortable circumstances when he played a joke on Duvall on set.
The two were working on Kicking & Screaming together, and Ferrell recalls that, even on the set of a PG-13 soccer film, Duvall was still taking everything very seriously and committing fully to the role. Ferrell and Duvall got along well for much of the shoot, and then, one morning, Ferrell decided to have a crack at the esteemed actor.
He shouted out, “Bobby D! I’m gunning for ya!” Unfortunately, Duvall did not laugh with him at all and simply retorted, “I’ll see you out there”, as he walked off. Ferrell worried that he’d ruined the pair’s working relationship, especially when Duvall was somewhat frosty with him the next morning, but luckily, this was just a blip. He and Ferrell got on well throughout the rest of the shoot.
One of Duvall’s best-known roles is in the Godfather Trilogy as Tom Hagen, the lawyer for the Corleone family. In the same interview, Ferrell revealed that he’d joked around with another actor from the Godfather films on the set of the Christmas classic Elf. This was the late, great James Caan, another terrific yet somewhat underappreciated artist who played Sonny Corleone, the volatile oldest son of the Corleone family.
Ferrell brought him the Godfather Trilogy and said, “The first two are kind of OK, but really dig into the third one!” In this instance, Caan thought it was hysterical, much to Ferrell’s relief.
