Will Ferrell's 'Elf' 20 Years Later_ Cast Interviews & Fun Facts

DHLTV

Transcript

00:00 It's just a wonderful Christmas story that worked on all these levels.

00:04 You did it!

00:07 Congratulations!

00:08 At the film's Hollywood premiere in 2003, critics were already calling Elf an instant

00:13 Christmas classic.

00:14 If Elf doesn't make you feel like Christmas, nothing will.

00:18 Will didn't have to do any research.

00:19 He basically is an elf.

00:21 Basically I ate a lot of candy.

00:22 I drank a lot of eggnog with James Conn.

00:25 That's how I pretty much got into the spirit.

00:29 But surprisingly, according to the Netflix documentary The Movies That Make Us, Elf,

00:34 Will Ferrell wasn't the studio's first choice to play Buddy.

00:37 They wanted to make this a Chris Farley movie, which would have been a different movie.

00:42 The studio also originally wanted Katie Holmes to play Buddy's love interest, Jovi, but

00:47 after auditioning a ton of people, they chose newcomer Zooey Deschanel.

00:50 Are you enjoying the view?

00:52 At the film's New York premiere, Zooey told us about her and Will's kissing scene, which

00:56 was shot at Rockefeller's ice skating rink.

00:58 You missed.

00:59 You make me feel so young.

01:01 I'm not a very good skater, so it was kind of like a little wobbly kiss.

01:05 And he's also 6'4" and I'm 5'5", so it's kind of funny.

01:11 Three other fun facts about the film.

01:13 Number one, Will's table dance in the mailroom of the Empire State Building was actually

01:17 shot in an abandoned mental institution.

01:20 Number two, the cast and crew spent 13 days shooting in New York City, where the scenes

01:24 with Buddy on the streets were shot guerrilla style in real time, including Will in the

01:29 Lincoln Tunnel playing with the revolving doors and running into traffic.

01:32 Stick around, he's gonna take his pants down.

01:35 Number three, as seen in the Netflix documentary, the rest of the film was shot in Vancouver,

01:39 where they rented out a hockey rink to make room for the North Pole in Santa's workshop.

01:42 All right, here we go.

01:43 Let's try a rehearsal, everyone.

01:44 Ready?

01:45 Everyone keeps asking since the holidays, do I force the kids to watch Elf or do they

01:50 want to watch Elf?

01:51 And I'm like, yeah, they've seen it.

01:53 And they're like, no, you were good.

01:54 The film classic has withstood the test of time, so at the 2017 Napa Film Festival, we

01:59 decided to test Will's memory on some of his Elf lines.

02:02 We Elves try to stick to the four main food groups.

02:04 Candy, candy corn, maple syrup, and something else.

02:08 Candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.

02:12 (upbeat music)

02:14 (upbeat music)

02:17 (upbeat music)

02:20 (upbeat music)

02:23 (upbeat music)

02:25 (upbeat music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended