For the duration of his new movie, “Casa de Mi Padre,” Will Ferrell speaks only in Spanish — the entire movie is subtitled. Fittingly clad in a powder blue country Western shirt (“It’s got a little bit of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader feel to it,” he says), he spoke with us about his career, his kids and his famous rear end.
You have a nude scene in this film, and this is the second time that you’re showing moviegoers your butt. What is it about your tush that you think audiences can’t get enough of?
Honestly, I just was serving the script, No. 1. But No. 2, I think it’s a funny-looking butt. It’s a comedy butt. It was just a great opportunity to make fun of the stereotypical passion scene. Also, on a deeper level, we’re so body-image conscious — why not show that we all have normal-looking bodies? It’s kind of a way to just go, it’s not that big a deal.
Your character, Armando, steps out of the shadows and finds his machismo in this film. Can you pinpoint a time in your life when you really came into your own?
That’s a tough question only because I don’t sit back and reflect in that way of like, “Yeah, I really came into my own.” I don’t know what that moment would have been. I think if you’re doing comedy, I don’t know if you ever really reach that feeling of like, “I’ve got it down.” I think there’s always a place of fear within you where you’re like, “God, I hope this works.” Getting on “Saturday Night Live” maybe was a little moment of that, but then you have to prove yourself on “Saturday Night Live.” Then you leave the show and you test your waters in the movie world, and this business is getting harder and harder.
Will you let your kids see this movie?
You know, my 5-year-old could watch it because he doesn’t read, but my 8-year-old, I don’t know if he could see it because he’d be like, “Wait, I think I saw the F-word!” But it is kind of violent, [so] I don’t know.
Are you the kind of dad who monitors what his kids watch?
A little bit, but … I just don’t have the impulse to be like, “Do you wanna watch one of daddy’s movies?” I waited for them to bring up “Elf.” If they’re like, “I heard about this one thing you did, can I see it?” I’m like, “Yeah, OK, we can watch it.” But I never wanted to be like, “Look at me.”
This movie is being described as “Anchorman”-meets-telenovela. How would Ron Burgundy fare in this world?
Probably horribly, because there’s no way Burgundy knows any other languages. He’d pretend that he knows Spanish and just immediately get in some awkward, horrible, compromising position where he gets shot. Yeah, I don’t think he’d do well.
In this film, you speak Spanish, you ride a horse and you play the trumpet. What other special skills do you have that audiences don’t know about?
That was not me [on the horse]. A couple times it was, where it slowly walked away, but any sort of big riding [wasn’t]. But it looks good! That was me mimicking playing the trumpet. I can juggle knives, that’s pretty cool, skeet shoot … no, I don’t know what other secret abilities I have.
