The Christmas classic “Elf” gave Will Ferrell ample opportunity to explore his character, inside and out. In the scene where Buddy explores New York City, the bulk of his onscreen antics were improvised.
Some of Buddy's most iconic lines—"You smell like beef and cheese!" and "You sit on a throne of lies!"—were improvised by Ferrell in the moment. 16. The big fight scene between Buddy and the fake Santa, played by comedian Artie Lange, was filmed in one take because it took the art department weeks to decorate Gimbels.
Back when the script was first being shopped around in the 90s, producers wanted Jim Carrey to play the goofy lead. – The outdoor scenes shot in New York City feature real people so many of the reactions you see are genuine!
All of the scenes were “real,” everything from Ferrell walking through traffic to interacting with people on the street. There were no extras, hired actors, or street closures during the limited filming that happened in New York, so they simply had Ferrell wander through the city streets and interact with real people.
Forced Perspective Was Used To Make Buddy Look Like A Giant
Elf utilized the technique of forced perspective in order to create this optical illusion. As Jon Favreau explained: "One set is raised and closer and smaller, and one is bigger and further away.
How They Made Elf | The Holiday Movies That Made Us
How much of the movie Elf was improvised?
“Elf” (2003) The Christmas classic “Elf” gave Will Ferrell ample opportunity to explore his character, inside and out. In the scene where Buddy explores New York City, the bulk of his onscreen antics were improvised.
James Caan was a true delight. My favorite memory of him was shooting part of a montage for the end of Elf and he started playing piano — he played beautifully — I sang and he played and I was just astonished by his talent!
Was the sidewalk gum pre-cleaned for you? WF: No, we didn't have a big enough budget, so I actually had to eat old New York City gum. But it wasn't as bad as you would think, still relatively favorable. Good to know if you ever have to eat any gum off the streets.
Elf was Will Ferrell's second box office hit. He reportedly received a whopping salary of $17 million for that film alone, more on par with what his talents would dictate in the mid-2000s. He was allegedly offered $29 million to act in an Elf sequel, but couldn't get his heart into it, so he turned it down.
The Original Elf Script Was Written For Jim Carrey
Given his wild and zany characters on In Living Color, Carrey was seen as a natural for the goofiness and playfulness needed to play Buddy the Elf. That casting was not meant to be, however, as Berenbaum's version of the movie never got made.
Interestingly, while the movie is set in New York City and the North Pole, many interior shots were filmed in an abandoned mental hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Riverview Hospital, located in Coquitlam, east of Vancouver, served as the backdrop for these scenes.
This actually makes Buddy a fair amount younger than Will Ferrell himself, who was 35 years old at the time of Elf's filming, and 36 when the movie was released to theaters.
Berenbaum finished the first draft of Elf in 1993 with In Living Color alum, Jim Carrey in mind for the lead role, with a much darker undertone of the film — but Carey wasn't meant to be in the role.
Fun fact: Producers wanted to feature the famous Macy's 34th street location, the largest store in the world, but Macy's refused to have their name used. So they settled on Gimbels, a now defunct NY department store–the exterior was shot at 5th Avenue and E 30th St and decorated with CGI.
Will Farrell wasn't originally slated to play Buddy. The original script for the movie in the early 1990s had comedian Jim Carrey chosen to star in the role of Buddy the Elf. Turns out, Carrey ended up playing a very different Christmas character in the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Ferrell told The Hollywood Reporter his decision to table "Elf 2" had nothing to do with money; he reportedly said no to a handsome $29 million to reprise the lovable Buddy. The problem apparently was that the only good thing about the potential sequel was the paycheck.
Summary. Will Ferrell's iconic performance as Buddy in Elf was supplemented by another actor for a 12-second scene. Voice actor Maurice LaMarche provided the burp sound for Buddy's soda-drinking scene in Elf.
This meant that Ferrell actually had to eat 100s of candy floss balls during the filming process, or "a few bushels worth," as he told Black Film. If you deem yourself as big a sugar fan as Buddy, this might sound like a dream situation to be paid for, but for the protagonist, it took a toll on his health.
James Caan plays Walter Hobbs, Buddy's biological father. That's quite the get for the film. He wasn't the first choice, though. Garry Shandling, best known for his seminal sitcom “The Larry Sanders Show,” was offered the role but turned it down.
The first script for Elf was written way back in 1993 with Jim Carrey in mind to play Buddy. However, as the project took years to get off the ground, The Mask star never ended up taking on the role.
Celebrity Net Worth noted that court documents showed Caan earning $1 million in royalties in 2015, with $140,000 annually from the Christmas classic “Elf.”
“I had to dye my hair blonde for a screen test for a movie that never happened before I did Elf,” Deschanel told Stylecaster in a March 2019 interview. “I went in for the meeting for Elf, and then I asked them, 'Could I dye my hair back to my natural color?
Though it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Buddy, Ferrell wasn't the first choice for the titular character. When the script for the movie first emerged in 1993, Jim Carrey was attached to star, per Vulture. However, by the time the film went into production, Carrey had moved on from the role.
Born December 18th, Buddy was adopted by elves and Santa Claus as a baby, so he never got to discover how exactly to be human. He developed certain skills like quickly decorating a large space, creating toys in short amounts of time and generally being a good person.
