INTERVIEW: Will Ferrell Talks Dirty En Espanol
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- Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 November 2013 07:05
- Written by Lupe Haas
Will Ferrell longed to be part of a cheesy novela-style film since his days on "Saturday Night Live" and he finally achieved that wish of becoming a telenovela star as the producer and star of the all-Spanish language comedy CASA DE MI PADRE. He brought along some of Mexico's talented stars with Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, and the late Pedro Almendariz Jr. to join the largely Latino cast.
As with most non-Spanish speaking viewers, Will discovered telenovelas and Mexican movies while channel surfing during some sleepless nights. The Spanish over-the-top action and acting caught his attention. Since then, he's wanted to parody the genre.
To take on the role of Armando Alvarez, Will Ferrell told CineMovie's Naibe Reynoso he worked with Patrick Perez, the writer who translated the script from English to Spanish. Patrick coached Will with his Spanish dialogue whatever chance they got to and from the set. Will was determined to get down the accent. The first day on the CASA DE MI PADRE set, Will started to doubt he could pull off the Spanish when his first scene required him to act out a two-page monologue. According to Will, he knew he had done his job when he saw the crew nodding their heads in approval after his take.
WARNING: Some Profanity
During the filming, he did pick up a few words in Spanish including one word that he particulary likes but can't use too often. As with most people learning any new language, people are always intrigued to learn the bad words first. Out of all the new Spanish words he learned, there was one word which became fond of. After shooting for CASA DE MI PADRE wrapped, the Anchorman star didn't keep up the Spanish but there's one word which is now his Spanish go-to word -"chingado." "Chinga this. Chinga that. That's a good word," Ferrell joked. As most Mexicans and Mexican-American know, that word is commonly used freely and multiple times within a sentence. Hanging out with Mexican crew and cast for the Spanish language, it's no wonder the Megamind actor picked up the swear word.
As the producer of the film, Will Ferrell was "fascinated" with the process of translating the script from the English version, written by Andrew Steele, to the Mexican-influenced comedy. Input into the Spanish dialogue came from various executives from Nala Films, the production company who financed CASA DE MI PADRE. Nala's owner Emilio Diaz Barroso who hails from Mexico and Cuban-American staff couldn't come to an agreement on the proper words because of the different slang terms among the different cultures.
"That's what's fascinating about Spanish. You have all these different dialects, different types of Spanish. And they (Nala staff) would throw their two senses in our translation. 'That's not how you say this or this.' So, we kind of had to go... 'Let's just say it one way.'"
Will Ferrell admits he couldn't hold a conversation in Spanish now because he's not immersed in it any longer, but his comprehension is better than before his experience on CASA DE MI PADRE. And at least he has his go-to word that we foresee will be used a lot in his line of business - Hollywood.
CASA DE MI PADRE is in movie theatres March 16 in limited theatres.
Will Ferrell Audio Interview- WARNING: Profanity
