Ferrell goes from George Bush to neo-Nazi

Will Ferrell attends the world premiere of 'The Producers'. Picture / Reuters

NEW YORK - Will Ferrell has played plenty of controversial characters in the past decade, but never a neo-Nazi.

The American bared his buttocks in the comedy Old School.

He played a sexist television newsreader in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and a dim-witted, oversized Christmas elf in Elf.

During his career-making stint on American television's landmark comedy skit show, Saturday Night Live, between 1995 and 2002, Ferrell portrayed plenty of zany characters, including Craig the overenthusiastic male cheerleader and US President George W Bush.

"I once played a paraplegic astronaut who was deaf and had a lisp," Ferrell adds with a serious look on his face during a recent interview in a Manhattan hotel.

There is a moment of silence before he smiles.

"No, I just made that up," the 38-year-old California-native continued.

"This might be the riskiest thing."

The "this" he refers to is Frank Liebkind, an eccentric, pigeon-loving neo-Nazi who has a central role in Mel Brooks' Tony Award and Oscar winning stage musical-comedy and movie, The Producers.

Ferrell and another Hollywood star, Uma Thurman, were the two outsiders on Brooks' new updated movie version of The Producers, with co-stars Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Roger Bart and Gary Beach together for more than 300 performances on Broadway.

"They beat me," Ferrell again deadpans to a question about how his cast mates treated him on the movie set.

"They locked me out of my dressing room."

Ferrell, amused by his own wit, once again waits for the laughs to give an honest answer.

"What was fun about this was everyone in the cast were literally the nicest people," he said.

"I didn't know what to expect.

"Would there be an amount of animosity because I was in a role an actor from Broadway could easily do?

"I was very conscious of that.

"But they were extremely nice."

Ferrell, so sensitive to playing Liebkind, wrote a letter to Oscar Gold, the actor who portrayed the neo-Nazi on Broadway with Lane, Broderick & Co during the show's Tony Award and box office record run in 2001 and 2002.

Ferrell had actually watched The Producers on Broadway before he was offered the film role and was impressed with Gold's performance.

"I wrote him a letter apologising for accepting the role of Franz," Ferrell recalled.

"I just said 'I hope I can do it half as well as when I saw you do it, but I'm sorry I couldn't resist. I had to take it. Accept my apologies'."

Did Gold reply to his letter?

"No," Ferrell laughed.

"I guess I know what that means."

In The Producers, Liebkind becomes a central figure in a plot hatched by Broadway producer Max Bialystock (played by Lane) and baby-faced accountant Leo Bloom (Broderick) to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors in a stage show.

The plan involves finding "the worst play ever written" to ensure it is so bad the show closes after its opening night.

Bialystock and Bloom plan to raise far more money than needed and after the musical abruptly closes, escape to Brazil with the leftover loot.

After searching through piles of plays they come across Liebkind's, a Nazi-themed musical called Springtime for Hitler, that appears to be so bad and controversial, the opening night audience would not stomach it.

"I never thought I'd be playing a neo-Nazi," Ferrell laughs once again.

"It was never a goal of mine."

Ferrell was not a fan of musicals and thought Brooks would go with Gold, but was shocked when offered the role.

"I asked my agent if they called the right number," he said.

Pulling off a German accent was the easy part.

What worried Ferrell the most was singing and dancing with his celebrated co-stars in a production that when it was first made in 1968 won a screenplay Oscar for Brooks and a record 12 Tony Awards in 2001.

"The accent was probably the easiest part," Ferrell said.

"It was something I could play around with and it didn't have to be perfect and could be humorous.

"In terms of the singing and dancing, it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

"To fit in with a cast that knows the show inside and out, they are really a well-oiled machine, it was a lot harder than what I thought."

- AAP