[IMG:L]Will Ferrell and Jon Heder may play figure skating arch–nemesis who, after their feud gets them banned from singles competition, have to learn work together to team for the paired category, but it was clear that off-screen their camaraderie was already going for the gold in a conversation with Hollywood.com that ranged from crotch-proximity, evil twins, chest beards and hooking up with Helen Mirren. And like most of Ferrell’s comedies, the interview comes complete with a special guest star cameo!
Hollywood.com: We have to talk about crotch proximity because you guys got very close to each other. Did you have to set any boundaries beforehand?
Jon Heder: The contract said, “No less than 2 centimeters.”
Will Ferrell: I had a restraining order against his crotch. We really didn’t talk about it, did we?
JH: I think, all in all, it ended up being mostly effects.
WF: That was a stunt crotch. I don’t think I touched his crotch.
JH: I even think the upside-down legs were actually fake. It wasn’t even someone else’s legs.
WF: Oh, really?
JH: Remember?
WF: Movie magic.
HW: Did the two of you know each other before making the film? Did that happen as soon as you guys met?
WF: It was instantaneous, wasn’t it?
JH: I was just [in awe]. When we first met, it was on the ice and we were on level playing ground. All bets were off.
WF: Yeah. We met in the parking lot of Pickwick Ice Rink in Burbank. It was like, “Hey, nice to meet you.” “Yeah, you too.” “This should be fun, right?” “It’s going to be hard, huh?” “You don’t know how to skate, do you?” “No.” “I don’t either.” “Okay, I’ll see you later.” [Laughs] That was kind of it.
JH: I was like, “I’ve got to lift you?”
WF: “No, I think I will be doing the lifting. I have to lift you.”
HW: Can you tell us something about each other that we would not know?
WF: Let me see . . . Jon has a twin brother. Did you know that?
[IMG:R]HW: We did, actually.
WF: Oh, shoot.
JH: Everybody knows that.
WF: Well, his twin brother is really mean. Jon’s nice, but this guy—he scares me.
JH: He’s the evil one.
WF: He’s the evil one. And, he would come to set and he wouldn’t even talk to me. He’d just sit across the room and go (Evil laugh). I was like, “What is he doing?,” and Jon was like, “That’s just my evil twin brother, don’t worry about it.”
JH: He’ll mess with you, but it’s not a big deal.
WF: So, that’s something about Jon.
JH: Will doesn’t grow facial hair. It’s all down here [points to Will’s chest].
WF: Yeah.
JH: It all goes there. He never had to shave.
WF: For some reason, the beard follicles are actually right here, over my breasts, so I grow a chest beard. I have to shave that down. So those are two things. Jon didn’t know I was left-handed.
JH: That’s true. Are you?
WF: Yeah.
JH: [Laughs] I didn’t know that, but neither did they.
HW: Speaking of the chest beard, Will, when you get a script, do you immediately try to find the scene where you get to take off as many of your clothes as you possibly can?
WF: No. I actually hope that there isn’t.
JH: He gave it to me [in this film].
WF: Yeah, I gave it to Jon this time. But, yeah, in this one, I kind of do a version of it with the tattoo thing, which I thought was really funny that you reveal this stupid life story through tattoos. But we got to make some crazy, funny tattoos. That was amazing. And, in fact, we were just laughing that [Jon’s character] Jimmy has no sense of the fact that there’s this gross guy with his shirt off. He’s just wrapped in the story, like “Really, wow, cool. What’s that one?”
JH: And then, Chazz gets the tattoo of Jimmy.
HW: Will, were you tempted to keep that tattoo after the film?
WF: I was. That was the funniest thing: the make-up tattoos are so real looking and they last for a good couple of days, so I would forget. On the weekends, I’d have these weird tattoos. My wife would be like, “Oh, gross, what is that?” “It’s just a wolf. I’m the lone wolf.”
HW: How much input did you guys have on your costumes?
WF: We had a little bit. Julie Weiss, who’s the wardrobe designer, is kind of a mad genius in a way. She’d be like, “I found this leather jacket in the hatchback of my neighbor’s car. Try it on.” [Laughs] You’d be like, “Oh, it’s perfect.” “I knew it! You’re going to wear that today.” She really designed these amazing costumes. She would call me on the phone and ask me things like, “What would your character keep in a duffle bag?” [laughs] “I don’t know yet. I haven’t even thought about it.” She was like, “I see you as a cross between Steven Tyler and…” this person or that person. But in terms of the skater stuff, she totally designed all that.
JH: The peacock outfit was kind of my idea because we had seen clips and footage of other skaters, just to study and research, and Johnny Weir had this swan outfit. It was kind of a famous routine. It was very serious, but the glove was a swan, and I was like, “That would be funny to do, but do it as a peacock.” Skaters are very much like peacocks. It was amazing. I just remember throwing that idea out, and then, the next thing I knew, she had this bejeweled glove and the eye, and everything. It was like, “Wow!”
WF: The first time I saw him in his outfit, I was really jealous. I was like, “Aw, you’re a peacock. Of course. You get a gloved hand and everything. I’m only fire.”
JH: But, he had fire coming out of his hand. That was pretty cool.
HW: How important is the hair in helping you find your character’s essence?
JH: I loved it. I love hair. It’s very important.
WF: I would say the same thing.
JH: I think so much of the look, obviously including wardrobe, but the hair is a huge thing because it’s basically the frame for your eyes and that’s the window to your soul is what they say.
WF: I’m about to cry right now.
[IMG:L]HW: Jon, you and Jenna Fischer share some lip action that’s sure to be nominated for Best Kiss at the next MTV Movie Awards. How’d you develop your—for lack of a better word—technique?
JH: In the script, it was like a sweet innocent kiss, from what I remember. But we were just talking about the characters and how they both have neither ever had experience with the opposite sex, for good reasons. So when they get together, we just thought neither of them would know what they’re doing and we should just make it like the most awkward kiss ever. She’s a little bit more excited—she gets into it a little bit more. Jimmy is still trying to go by what he watches on like Backstreet Boys videos. We didn’t really rehearse it, but when we shot it, it was like “All right, let’s just kind of go for it and see what happens.” It was really weird. There was a couple where she was like making moans, like “Ahh ahh.”
HW: How much of the actual skating did you really do, and was it tough to do it in front of those big stadium crowds?
JH: I remember the first time when we started shooting the skating stuff, to be out there where we have our routines planned, we know the routine but then you have all these extras. And it was like the real deal. I got up, I was nervous, I was like- –
WF: You don’t want to mess up.
JH: I didn’t want to mess up and—I mean, once you start going it’s fine.
WF: We worked with this woman Sarah Kawahara, and she’s like the big-time skating choreographer, to the point where some of the other coaches who were former pros, you could actually see them get nervous around her. She does all the “Disney on Ice,” everything. You have these coaches who really wanted us to [excel]. In your mind, you’d be like, “I nailed that!” And they were like [bored] “Better.”
JH: They were like real coaches. The directors say, “Oh, great job. Now do it this way.” And they were like, “Yeah, okay.”
WF: “Make sure you point your toe.” And the director would be like, “Looks fine.” They were almost like, “Don’t tell them that.” But it was intense.
JH: And I tried to do as much skating as I could. Obviously, we had doubles to do the really cool spins and the jumps.
HW: Will, you and Jack Black gave a particularly randy shout-out to Helen Mirren during your hilarious Oscar song. Did you talk to her after the show?
JH: Oh, there wasn’t any talking.
WF: Not a lot of talking in my hotel suite.
[Suddenly their Blades co-star Amy Poehler bursts into the room and glares at them with hatred]
Amy Poehler: Keep it down! We’re trying to think out here!
WF: You are nothing but a dumb hillbilly!
AP: You son of a bitch!
[Poehler storms out]
HW: Okay. Now that you have learned to skate, who loves it and who hates it?
JH: I love it!
WF: He does. He loves it. I don’t hate it.
JH: He doesn’t hate anything.
WF: But, yeah, I haven’t skated since the movie. But he’s only skated once.
JH: I’ve gone only once since because I’ve been busy.
WF: He’s a big talker. He was like, “I’m going to skate all the time.”
JH: And, I am. I’m going to. [Laughs] And, by all the time, I mean that I’m going to try to make it a regular, once a month- to-semi-annual thing.
