Featured Image Credit: Sean M Haffey via Getty Images
Topics: Will Ferrell, Elf, Entertainment, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin
Topics: Will Ferrell, Elf, Entertainment, Film, TV and Film
Will Ferrell had a unique clause in his contract about a famous actor he flat out refused to work with again.
We all have probably had a coworker at some point or another who has pi**ed us off to no end.
If you have never had that experience? You were that coworker.
What many of us won’t have had however, is the opportunity to put into our contract something that bars them from working with us again if we want to, which reportedly is exactly what Ferrell had.
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Now unique contract clauses in Hollywood are no rare thing.
Queen Latifah famously has clauses in many of her contracts prohibiting her characters from dying, The Rock puts it into contracts that he cannot lose fights, and Reese Witherspoon got it into her contract that she get to keep all her clothes from Legally Blonde 2.
Ferrell’s meanwhile, actually led to a sequel to Elf never having been made.
The story came about when the late James Caan in 2020 was interviewed on the radio and he was incredibly frank about the reason a sequel never happened.
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According to Caan, it was due to tensions between Ferrell and director Jon Favreau.
Favreau is now most well known as an actor, playing Happy Hogan in a multitude of Marvel films and Pete in Friends.
The 58-year-old has also directed several classics such as Zathura, Chef, and of course, Elf.
Caan spoke about the pair in the context of a sequel to Elf, saying that himself Zoey Deschanel, himself and Mary Steenburgen were all on board to return.
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He said: “We were gonna do it.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, I finally got a franchise movie, I could make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do.’
“But the director and Will didn't get along very well.”
He claimed that Ferrell was considering it, but didn’t do the film as he had in his contract that he refused to work with Favreau again.
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He said: “He had it in his contract, it was one of those things.”
Ferrell has not acknowledged this but has stated that he turned down £23 million to appear in a sequel to Elf.
He said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “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.’
I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie’.”
The LADbible group have reached out to representatives for Will Ferrell for comment.