Adam McKay is an Oscar-winning writer and director whose work you definitely know. He did The Big Short, and he's also the guy behind comedy classics like Anchorman and Step Brothers.
Of course, you know that Will Ferrell collaborated with McKay on those last two movies — and maybe you've wondered why they haven't worked together in recent years.
In a new Vanity Fair interview, McKay revealed that he isn't even on speaking terms with Ferrell anymore and doesn't anticipate reuniting with the actor any time soon.
Surprisingly, the reason for the split has to do with John C. Reilly, Ferrell's costar in the McKay-helmed Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, as well as Holmes & Watson.
OK, so: McKay is currently developing an HBO series about the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. Originally, Ferrell was cast as franchise owner Jerry Buss — but McKay didn't feel like he was right for the part.
So McKay ended up going with Reilly for the role — without letting Ferrell know. “I should have called him and I didn’t,” he said. “And Reilly did, of course, because Reilly, he’s a stand-up guy. … I fucked up on how I handled that. It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book.”
McKay claims that the last time he spoke with Ferrell was in 2019, when the pair decided to split up their production company, Gloria Sanchez Productions. “I said, ‘Well, I mean, we’re splitting up the company,'” he recalled. “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 Vanity Fair story also notes that McKay has emailed Ferrell to mend fences but has yet to receive a response — and the director is pretty sure that their friendship is on ice for now.
“In my head, I was like, ‘We’ll let all this blow over,'" McKay claimed. "[But Ferrell] took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for.”
