After joining forces to bring us Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, and more, Will Ferrell and Adam Mckay announced an end to their partnership in 2019. In a joint statement, the pair said, “The two of us will always work together creatively and always be friends. And we recognize we are lucky as hell to end this venture as such.” Unfortunately, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay haven’t remained friends and McKay has taken the blame for the split in a new profile via Vanity Fair.
Will Ferrell had previously said that the reason behind the split stemmed from Adam McKay’s increased interest in producing more and more projects, and McKay told Vanity Fair that his choice to cast John C. Reilly over Will Ferrell in his upcoming 1980s Los Angeles Lakers series for HBO was the final nail in the coffin.
The truth is, the way the show was always going to be done, it’s hyperrealistic. And Ferrell just doesn’t look like Jerry Buss, and he’s not that vibe of a Jerry Buss. And there were some people involved who were like, ‘We love Ferrell, he’s a genius, but we can’t see him doing it.’ It was a bit of a hard discussion.
Will Ferrell might have accepted that explanation, but Adam McKay made the casting change behind Ferrell’s back and never called him to explain. “I should have called him and I didn’t,” McKay said. “And Reilly did, of course, because Reilly, he’s a stand-up guy… I fucked up on how I handled that. It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book.”
The last time Adam Mckay spoke to Will Ferrell before the split was over the phone as they were talking about breaking up their production company. It didn’t end well, and McKay has said that he’s written several emails to Ferrell since in an attempt to reconcile, but they’ve gone unanswered. “In my head, I was like, ‘We’ll let all this blow over,’” McKay said. “Six months to a year, we’ll sit down, we’ll laugh about it and go, It’s all business junk, who gives a shit? We worked together for 25 years. Are we really going to let this go away?’ [But 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.” We can probably kiss that Step Brothers sequel goodbye.