STACK July 2017 Issue 153

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Robert De Niro in Casino.”
Pairing Ferrell and Poehler as a suburban
couple who hit on the idea of opening a
basement casino to pay for their daughter’s
college tuition, the lengths parents will go to
pay for their kid’s college fees is a concept not
lost on either actor.
“College in the US is expensive,” muses
Ferrell, 49, who helped pay his way through
a degree in sports business at University of
Southern California by taking a work-study
loan. “I worked in the Humanities audio-visual
department, checking out cassette tapes.
“But I still had a lot of student debt and
was writing cheques for $50 a month which
was barely paying off the interest. It was only
when I got to SNL that I was able to write the
final cheque and pay off my debt.”
Likewise, Poehler, 45, recalls how her
school teacher parents re-mortgaged their
home twice to pay for her to attend Boston
College.
“They are awesome parents and education
is really important to them, but I remember a
lot of late-night hushed conversations about
how they were going to pay for school. So it
was completely in my realm as to the stress of:
what will you do to get your kid into a school
that they really want to attend?” says Poehler,
who will be looking to put two sons through
college in the years ahead, while Ferrell has
three sons.
“My wife tells me we have a
college fund. But it's getting so
expensive, I hope it's enough
by the time they’re ready…
it's crazy,” he deadpans.
Both alums of US TV’s
SNL – the quintessential
proving ground for comic
talent – it's remarkable that
Ferrell and Poehler have not
worked together on the big
screen prior to The House , with
their characters in 2007 ice-skating
spoof Blades of Glory barely sharing
any screen time.
Ask why it took them so long to co-star, they
both enter into a riff. “We couldn’t agree on the
terms,” volunteers Poehler. “It was an endless
negotiation – the terms, we just couldn’t agree
on the terms, it was all about the terms. We’d
get to the five yard line and then: Nope!” sighs
Ferrell.
“It just became a thing where: Guess what?
Amy capitulated – she’ll do it for what you
want, and then I’d be like: It’s off! I was just so
used to the back and forth.”
“We liked the dance more than the movie.
And I guess people were afraid to put us
together in a film – too much! Too hot!” laughs
Poehler, cracking up as Ferrell adds, “Too much
fire power!”
014 JULY 2017
visit CINEMA FEATURE
When Amy Poehler promptly pulled
down her pants and took a pee on a
lawn while filming her latest comedy
movie The House, nobody could quite believe
their eyes.
“Amy comes up with so many great ideas.
So when she asks, ‘Shall I pee on the lawn?’
I immediately go: ‘Yeah, absolutely!’” reveals
The House director Andrew Jay Cohen when
STACK meets with him and his cast in West
Hollywood.
“As a director, you’d be an idiot not to listen,
so it's just about getting out of the way and
letting them go down the rabbit hole because
its far more fun that way.”
Likewise, the ladies sunglasses which Will
Ferrell rocks is the actor's own invention,
courtesy of his wife.
“I love wearing my wife’s Jackie O
sunglasses and pretending that it’s a cool look
for a man,” says Ferrell, who first wore his
wife’s shades as a guest on the Conan O’Brien
show. “They look so beautifully ridiculous but if
you were in the French Riviera and saw a guy
wearing them, you wouldn’t think twice. You
would go: Well, that guy can pull it off.”
Despite the obvious lure of wearing women’s
SNL veterans Amy Poehler andWill Ferrell
team up for suburban comedy
The House
–
and it's a winning combination.
Words Gill Pringle
sunnies, persuading Ferrell
to sign on for The House
was not easy for first-time
director Cohen, best known
for his work co-writing
scripts for comedies Bad Neighbours and Mike
and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and defining
his genre as “suburban crime revenge”.
“But once I pitched Will with my take on
The House as Martin Scorsese’s Casino in the
suburbs, he was interested,” says Cohen, who
sent Ferrell a look-book of how his suburban
dad would appear once he’d embraced his bad-
ass new persona as a casino boss. “I literally
superimposed Will’s face over pictures of The House is in cinemas on June 29
BRINGING
DOWN
I love wearing my
wife’s Jackie O
sunglasses and
pretending that it’s a
cool look for a man