Steve Carell and Paul Rudd recently discussed their upcoming film, “Anchor Man 2: The Legend Continues.”
Ron Burgundy returns with his news team to launch a 24- hour news network. The nitwit weatherman Brick Tamland (Carell) and pompous field reporter Brian Fantana (Rudd) are cherished members of the sophomoric news team.
The sequel, filmed partially in Atlanta, comes after a decade- long hiatus. Rudd believed the first movie was so successful because it “felt like a very small kind of quirky comedy that [the actors] thought was funny [and] did not seem particularly commercial.” Often times sequels do not live up to audience’s expectations, but Rudd believes that the “spirit still existed this time around even though there were more eyes on [them].”
Carell’s character is loved for his impressively unnatural and daft way of speaking. In the first movie, Brick claimed, “I love lamp.” Fortunately, this time around, he develops a romantic interest that is seemingly reciprocated by Kristen Wiig’s character.
“Brick has trouble putting a sentence together around anything, regardless of their sex,” Carell said.
When it comes to women, Rudd’s character is also no Romeo.
“As far as Brian goes, I think I like his musky sexualized idiocy,” Rudd said.
Carell and Rudd felt that a decade did not make it anymore difficult to get back into character. Carell believed that if anything, a decade hiatus actually helped him jump back into character. “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,” Carell said.
During filming, one-minute scenes would turn into 10-minute scenes as actors piled joke on top of joke.
Writer and director Adam McKay influenced a lot of the improvisation. “He sits at the monitor in his little tent with a microphone and just throws out ideas… everything that he says is kind of golden,” Carell said.
For a long time, it did not look like “Anchor Man 2” would ever start filming. During this period, rumors started that the original “Anchor Man” would hit the stage as a musical. “That was the part I was excited about: The fact that at any given moment, the characters could just break into song,” Carell said.
The musical never came to fruition but Carell, true to Brick form, believed his character would have sung a song called “Gravy.”
Many may find the silly portrayal of a news team a far stretch from reality, but Rudd feels in some ways they hit the mark. “Sometimes I watch news anchors and I think they are portraying themselves in a very silly way, much sillier than we could ever do,” Rudd said.
If fans enjoy the movie as much as Carell and Rudd enjoyed filming it, the sequel is bound to be a hit. “Even if there was no film and any camera, we would have come back and done it, because it’s so much fun,” Carell said.
The fun starts when the movie hits theatres Dec. 20.
