Ferrell revs up

Will Ferrell is the first to admit that at thee start he knew nothing at all about the sport of motor racing.

If you see a tall, goofy guy driving slowly down the street in a Prius, it's definitely not Ricky Bobby. But it might be Will Ferrell.

"I'm like a grandma out there on the road," says 39-year-old Ferrell. "My wife is always giving me a hard time for crawling along in the fast lane."

Yes, this is the same Will Ferrell who stars as a speed-obsessed racecar driver in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Of course, this being Ferrell, the hero of the story is more of a comedian than a hero. He is a legendary Nascar driver whose self-centred existence is turned upside-down when he is overshadowed by a new driver on the circuit, who is not only French, but gay. As a youngster, Ricky Bobby learned to live by the rule his daddy taught him: "If you ain't first, you're last."

Ricky's lifelong need for speed serves him well. He becomes one of Nascar's brightest stars, and his life seems perfect. He has a beautiful wife, two sons - named Walker and Texas Ranger - and the adoration of millions of fans. But his career and family life take a downward spiral, and he is forced to claw his way back to the top.

The film includes realistic racing scenes, cameos from some of the sport's top drivers and the blessing of Nascar. Oh, and the obligatory scene where Ferrell runs around in his underpants.

You might think that to make a film about auto racing, Ferrell must be a big fan of the sport. But the comic actor, also an executive producer of the film, knew nothing about Nascar before he started making this movie.

The idea for making a comedy about the sport was born on one of the worst days of Ferrell's career.

He and his longtime writing partner Adam McKay - they met on the set of Saturday Night Live - were pitching their TV news-anchor comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy to Hollywood executives.

They were rejected by 10 studios in the same day.

"That was a bad day," Ferrell says. "Everybody thought the concept was too weird and too abstract. "Adam and I walked out of those meetings and we knew that next time we needed to come up with an idea that was easier to pitch.

"For the next month we turned it into an inside joke, where we kept trying to top each other on coming up with a topic that would be easy to pitch.

"I'm not sure who said it first, but one of us said: 'For instance, Nascar'."

A few weeks later Ferrell told McKay that he couldn't get the Nascar idea out of his head. McKay agreed, and the movie, which McKay directed, got an immediate studio nod.

It was only then that the writing team realised how little they knew of the sport. "I didn't even know where Talladega was - it's in Alabama. But through that ignorance that we could create the humour. Eventually, we had to start doing some research because we lacked the terminology."

Ferrell was apprehensive about approaching Nascar officials for help. He said he needed access to the tracks and the drivers, but was worried that they wouldn't be open to being made objects of fun. I emphasised to them that we were not interested in making fun of their fans or their sport. I told them that the only person being made fun of in this movie is me."

Nascar officials offered complete access to the film company.

"They asked to see the script, and the only thing they wanted from us was that we stay true to the rules, so that people watching the movie would understand that certain behaviour would result in penalties. I think that was fair."

Ferrell, who drove his mother's 1969 powder-blue Volkswagen Beetle when he was 16, said younger drivers on the circuit were obvious fans of his comedy work and greeted him warmly whenever the crew was filming at a track.

"They thought it was cool, and wanted us to have fun with it."

Older drivers were more wary, but eventually came around.

"A couple of the biggest veteran drivers came up to me at a race in Chicago and said they couldn't wait to see the movie. And it seemed like they really meant it."

Although he and his crew had total co-operation from Nascar, there were occasional bumps in the road.

"Everybody thinks all those sponsors on our cars were a form of product placement," Ferrell says, "but we got no money from any of them. Some of the companies, like Goodyear, gave us tyres and things like that, but we had to get permission to use the names of enough companies to cover 23 race cars."

Ferrell is confident race-car fans will like his comic approach to their sport. And he's just starting to understand what they like about Nascar racing.

"I was never a fast driver. And I never watched a race before. I was never really interested. But, having been to a few races now, I do get it on a visceral level. The sights and sounds get you so charged up. It's very exciting.

"But I still don't understand the sport. There are moments when I get confused. How do they know when they're one lap up? It's all a mystery to me."

Lowdown

Who: Will Ferrell

Born: July 16, 1967, Irvine, California

Key roles : Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), The Suburbans (1999), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Dick (1999), Zoolander (2001), Old School (2003), Elf (2003), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Melinda and Melinda (2004), Kicking & Screaming (2005), Wedding Crashers (2005), The Producers (2005).

Latest: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, opens today.

- NZPA