Adam McKay is trying to set the record straight about his breakup with his Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers collaborator Will Ferrell on Thursday.
In a new interview with Business Insider, McKay offered the “real” story behind the split. “The only thing that caused acrimony between us was when we decided to end our production company, Gary Sanchez. And I know it was reported one way or the other, but that was really it.”
He added that it was “a shame” that the relationship came to an end, “because we had a great creative partnership.”
McKay, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for The Big Short at the 2016 Oscars, continued, “I think both of us underestimated the complications that go with not just having a company, but a very successful company. We had it for a long time and did a lot of cool projects,” he added of Gary Sanchez’s 13-year run. “And Ferrell said it publicly, he was never someone who wanted to produce, so he was always half in and half out, but then he would love it and be proud of the company, but by the end, he wanted to move on.”
In 2021, McKay told Vanity Fair that the last straw for their relationship was when he cast Ferrell’s best friend, John C. Reilly, as Jerry Buss in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty—a role that Ferrell, a lifelong Lakers fan, had really wanted to play himself. “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,” McKay said at the time.
“I f---ed up on how I handled that,” he added. “It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book.”
“The whole time it was like I was saying it out loud, ‘Let’s not become an episode of Behind the Music. Don’t let it happen.’ And it happened.”
Five years later, McKay downplayed the conflict as a cause of their split. “It had become too much extra work; it was never his passion. I was really the one who wanted to produce, but a movie star’s life is very different than a writer-director’s life. So we split up.”
For his part, Ferrell said in a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he didn’t have the same fervor for producing as his ex-partner. “Adam was like, ‘I want to do this, and this, and this,’ he wanted growth and a sphere of influence, and I was just like, ‘I don’t know, that sounds like a lot that I have to keep track of.’”
Ultimately, McKay said he would be glad to work with Ferrell again. “I totally have been open to the idea. We always got along great, we were tremendous creative partners.”
