Page 2
Getting Will Ferrell to do a Cameo in The Wendell Baker Story: “He’s great,” said Luke Wilson. “I didn’t write that for him. It’s funny, he and I had gone to Europe and Andrew was actually on the trip to do press for Old School. Vince Vaughn was off doing a movie, but we just had so much fun on the trip and people would ask us what we were doing next. We’d be in Germany and, ‘What are you doing next?’ And Will would say, ‘I’m doing a character named Ron Burgundy, he’s a sexist newscaster.’ ‘And you?’ I’d go, ‘I’m playing Wendell Baker, and he’s a con man.’ We just got the worst reaction from those people and not only to those ideas, but they hated Old School. So, we had the best of both worlds. We had a hit in the states and a flop here, which is exhilarating in its own way.
We just got to talking about our own projects and Will said, ‘Yeah, if you ever want me to do a little part on Wendell I’d be glad to.’ And then he got me to do Anchorman. And then it was really funny. I did Anchorman first and then like nine months later Wendell Baker came along and he was nice enough to come to Austin for a couple of days. We’d gone jogging the day he was going to work and I was saying, ‘You didn’t think you were gonna get that Wendell Baker call did you?’ And he was like, ‘No, I didn’t. Didn’t really think you were going to be able to pull that one together.’ (Laughing) It was just one of those things you are so kind of lucky to get him to do it."
Luke Wilson continued, "It’s the same idea where you get those guys and you kind of use that script as a blueprint. ‘Let’s just get in the script like it is once, and then let those guys get going.’ Like, Will Ferrell’s whole, that’s one of my favorite things is when you see him for the first time in the grocery store, you see him talking about playing football for the University of Texas and getting his ass shipped out of Austin. That was something we just came up with, just waiting for them to light the scene.”
Counting on Your Friends for Support: Luke Wilson explained how it wound up that he, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell wound up working in each other’s films. “I think it kind of goes back to us, how we got started. Vince with Swingers, us with Bottle Rocket, just kind of getting started at the same time. Honestly, it’s one of those things where you make the first call and the agent always gives you the brush off. And sometimes you have to kind of dig up that home number and do a little Wall Street cold call. Where it’s like, ‘Will? Luke here.’ Long pause. ‘Yeah?’ You know it’s not going to be a, ‘Hey, we’re having a BBQ call.’ It’s a, ‘We need you in Austin.’
But no, with Owen and Ben, I just think we’ve always had fun doing each other’s movies. It’s always fun to do a little part like in Blades of Glory. I just like being around Will. Like, I know when Vince got Will to do that part in Wedding Crashers with he and Owen, they just had so much fun. And Owen had never had the chance to work with Will. I think it’s just one of those things we just started doing. It was never anything by design. It was just one of those things we fell into.”
Luke Wilson vs Wendell Baker: Asked what attributes the two share Andrew Wilson responded, “[Luke is] not the con man, but just somebody that sticks to it and isn’t easily. Wendell is somebody who has tired a lot of different things and some of them haven’t worked out, but he keeps plugging along. You can kind of make that analogy for writing which is a very, very difficult thing to do. As Luke was saying, you sometimes get the response that you want, but you’ve just got to keep trying. And that’s what I sort of admire about Wendell; he gets thrown in jail and ends up loving jail. (Laughing) He loves the camaraderie, loved the courts. That’s a quality that Luke has that I admire a lot. He sticks to it and is kind of tough.”
Into the Future – The Status of Old School 2: Informed that executive producer Ivan Reitman said he just received a new script for Old School 2, Luke Wilson replied, “Is that right? That’s the best news I’ve heard. (Laughing) The problem is, I’m always kind of hoping in the back of my mind for Vince [Vaughn] and Will [Ferrell] to bomb so they have to do it with me, because I need it! That would be great. I always had confidence that if Todd Phillips, who directed it, and Scot Armstrong, who wrote it, I just know they wouldn’t want to ruin the goodwill of the first one and the people who seem to like it. So, I figure it would have to be just as good or better. But, that’s pretty cool.”
Wilson doesn’t know why he hasn’t seen the new script. “I always get people asking and I just never know. And it’s the kind of thing where once a year somebody will call, like my agent or something and go, ‘Hey, would you be up for doing Old School 2?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, definitely.’ It will probably end up being me and some two guys besides Will and Vince.”
Another Co-Directing Project is in the Works: “Luke wrote this script called Electric Avenue…that we are going to try and get going,” said Andrew Wilson. “We would direct that together.” Luke describes the film as a buddy picture. “It’s just kind of about a newspaperman whose life has kind of hit the skids and I’m hired to kind of keep an eye on him,” said Luke. “It’s an idea I talked to Martin Lawrence about. A few years ago we had done a movie called Blue Streak. We just had fun working together and always said we should try and do something together. Yeah, he liked the idea but now we just have to show him the script and see if he’s still into it, or if he has the time. But that’s what we are going to try and get going. Then we have this Jim Lehrer book called White Widow that we have to write the script to and get that going.”
