Have you stayed classy, San Diego?
Perfect hair will grace the silver screen once more on Dec. 20, when “Anchorman 2” premieres. That’s right, after almost a decade, Ron Burgundy and his team are back.
“Anchorman” established the Channel 4 News crew as San Diego’s best news team, but in the upcoming sequel it seems that title may be in jeopardy. Burgundy and his team fight to reclaim their prominence despite their egoism and extreme idiocy. “Anchorman 2,” like its predecessor, will feature a myriad of cameos from Harrison Ford and Kanye West to Kristen Wiig and Nicole Kidman.
“Anchorman 2” is set to premiere in December, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, “Anchorman 2” actors Steve Carell and Paul Rudd answered college journalists’ questions about their characters, the film and how to bag a classy lady.
In a nationwide conference call on Nov. 1, university newspapers were called on to ask Carell and Rudd any question—the only rule was no touching of the hair or face. Here’s what we heard.
NYU: Hi. I just was wondering what aspect of your characters do you love the most?
Steve Carell: Boy, I love the innate intelligence of Brick. He's sort of the counterintuitive quality of his character, I think, is what appeals to me.
Paul Rudd: And as far as Brian goes, I think I like his musky sexualized idiocy.
Northwestern: So you guys – you guys are obviously at a point in your career where you can choose what projects you want to work on. So I was wondering what is about “Anchorman” that made you want to revisit it?
Paul Rudd: Oh man. Well, this is Paul. For me, mainly it was like working with these guys again who I love. And, you know, it was such a blast doing the first one that I want – I would jump at the chance to come back and beat a dead horse.
Steve Carell: I think we all felt exactly that same way. We all just wanted to do it for the sake of doing it, and I think we all would have done it in a vacuum. Even if there was no film and any camera, we would have come back and done it, because it's so much fun.
Ryerson: Paul, your character uses this cologne cabinet in the first movie and his Jimmy cabinet in the upcoming movie to not-so successfully seduce women. And Steve, your character has trouble putting a sentence together around women. So I'm wondering what advice you guys would give to college guys trying to pick up girls.
Steve Carell: If I could be a little more specific, Brick has trouble putting a sentence together around anything, regardless of their sex. What sort of advice the character could give to men in terms of the ladies, is that your question?
Ryerson: Sure.
Steve Carell: Sure. No, I'm not trying to lead you. I just wasn't sure what you wanted me to answer.
Ryerson: Whatever you guys think. Whatever you guys think.
Paul Rudd: I would say to guys, college guys, drop the cologne. No one likes it. Use your – you know, your own natural...
Steve Carell: Musk.
Paul Rudd: Your own natural musk which will bring the ladies in in busloads.
Steve Carell: I would say you have to listen. You have to open your heart and open your ear and you have to listen and appreciate the person that you're with.
Paul Rudd: Yes, you're right, Steve. It's kind of all about communication.
Steve Carell: It's all about communication, Paul.
George Washington U: I saw that this – originally, it was pitched to be a play on Broadway for the sequel. And I was wondering what you thought would've been the best part about seeing your characters on the stage.
Paul Rudd: That's great. Yes, we were going to – it was a musical, right?
Steve Carell: Yes. That was the part I was excited about, was the fact that at any given moment, the characters could just break into song. The idea of that happening, just great. I also liked the idea that there were, at that point in time, enough people had been clamoring for an “Anchorman” sequel and the idea of doing it as a musical on Broadway just really, I thought, was funny and annoyed people. Clearly, not enough people felt the same way because it didn't and will never happen.
GWU: Do you think your characters – like what the songs you think they would've sung?
Steve Carell: I think I would've – I would've sung a song called Gravy.
Paul Rudd: And I would have sung 565,600 Minutes.
Emory: Recently, both of you have starred some really great more Indie and series movies like, you know, Steve, you're in the “Way, Way Back” and, Paul, in “Prince Avalanche.” So I was wondering what was it like to sort of balance that with, you know, a bigger Hollywood blockbuster and, you know, sort of revisit “Anchorman.” You know, it's just such a ridiculous saga compared to the other movies you've been in recently.
Paul Rudd: Well, this is Paul. It was a blast. It was a blast to kind of come back to this part, these guys and these characters because, one, I mean, they were so – you know, they were so fun to do the first time around and we all had such a great time. But, you know, part of the spirit of what happened on the first “Anchorman” was that it felt like an indie movie. It just felt like a very small kind of corky comedy that we thought was funny that did not seem particularly commercial. And that was kind of the way it was the first time around. And I think that spirit still existed this time around even though there were more eyes on us.
The Young Folks: So you're both naturally talented comedians. So how much of the jokes and gags are improvised?
Steve Carell: A lot of the – well, the script was in great shape. We did a table read of the script, obviously, before we shot and it was hilarious. So we had that as a starting point. But on any given day, we or Adam or Will would come up with... as much material as was on the page. And Adam McKay has such a fertile mind. He sits at the monitor in his little tent with a microphone and just throws ideas out. And, you know, you can pick and choose. You don't have to say what he's giving you. But invariably you want to because it's – everything that he says is kind of golden.
So, yes, I mean, there were just so many fertile minds working. We ended up with way more material than we needed.
UMichigan: You both have made your careers playing comedic, at times clearly strange characters, and which of the quotes from your many roles do fans repeat back to you most?
Steve Carell:I love lamp.
Paul Rudd: That was Paul that said that.
Steve Carell: For me, it seems – I think it's either – it seems like it's kind of slap the bass now. The last few years, that seems to be the one maybe more than others.
Bowling Green: So the first “Anchorman” came out almost a decade ago. How difficult as far as like the years have gone by and working on other movies, how difficult was it to get back into character for this movie?
Paul Rudd: At times, it didn't seem difficult at all, like I feel we know these characters pretty well. But I would say throughout the shoot, there were – there were many moments where I thought, oh god, am I doing this right? Am I – I felt where I – I felt a little off track. But I couldn't tell whether or not I was in my head and I actually did remember or I was commenting on what I had done the first time.
Steve Carell: And the more lost I felt, the better that served me. The more out of sorts I felt, in general, the better I think that played into Brick.
Steve Carell: I am as a human being no smarter than I was 10 years ago, so that I haven't improved as a human being. I haven't evolved in any way. So that really helped me with Brick.
Ohio State: After watching the trailer, I've noticed that there are some crazy and hilarious scenes that we're going to see in the movie, and I was wondering if you could tell us if there was a favorite scene that you guys shot or maybe one that you can't wait for the viewers to see.
Steve Carell: Boy, there – I mean, there are a lot of them. There aren't any specifics that I'd want to get into because, then, they wouldn't be – you know, trying to explain something always is a little difficult. Like I would come home from a day of shooting and try to explain to my wife something really funny that happened and it definitely loses something in the translation. But, yes, there are – there's so much more. You know, you look at the trailer and you think, wow, that's – they put everything in that they could and that's the entire movie. But there's so much more than is in the trailer and funnier. So I'm kind of psyched about the whole thing.
Cal State Northridge: This question is for Paul Rudd. I'm wondering if we will see the return of the Sex Panther.
Paul Rudd: Well, I can't – you know, I can't really give it away. I don't want to say anything whether it does or whether it doesn't. I want people to have questions going into this. I want – I want people to feel about this the way they feel about “Lost in Translation,” in a way. It's like, remember, when Scarlett Johansson whispered into his ear and no one knows what she said. That's the way I want people – I want that level of frustration.
Steve Carell: Well, you know what she did say.
Paul Rudd: What? Yes, that is sex – is that a Sex Panther in your pocket or are you – yes, there you go. She called him a Sex Panther, did she?
Steve Carell: She did.
Paul Rudd: Oh my god. Now the movie makes sense.
Simon Fraser University: What do you think about portraying the seemingly very serious job of news anchors in such a silly way?
Paul Rudd: I feel pretty good about it.
Steve Carell: I feel good too.
Paul Rudd: Sometimes I watch news anchors and I think they're portraying themselves in a very silly way, much sillier than we could ever do.
