“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place.”
Will Ferrell knows that money isn’t everything.
During a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the Talladega Nights star discussed his successful career in Hollywood and why he turned down a sequel to Elf.
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Although Ferrell was promised a hefty paycheck of $29 million, he said that he didn’t want to do a sequel to the hit movie because the sequel’s storyline was very similar to the original one.
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“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money,'” Ferrell said.
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“And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.'”
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James Caan, who plays Ferrell’s father in the movie, previously told the radio show The Fan in Cleveland that a sequel was never made because Ferrell and the director couldn’t get along.
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“We were gonna do it,” Caan said of the sequel. “And I thought, ‘Oh my god, I finally have a franchise movie. I can make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do.'”
However, “The director [Jon Favreau] and Will didn’t get along very well. Will wanted to do it, and he didn’t want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things.”
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Sadly, the sequel to Elf was never made. But at least the original film is still a Christmas classic to this day!
Jeffrey Mayer / WireImage for New Line Cinema / Getty Images
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