Talladega Nights
By Marshall Julius, Blockbuster.co.uk
Let me tell you about a movie I love. Untamed, inventive and hysterically funny, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a guaranteed audience pleaser, a work of comic genius from Anchorman star
Will Ferrell. A superstar NASCAR racer with an avaricious bleached-blonde wife, obnoxious sons named Walker and Texas ranger, and a best friend and teammate (
John C. Reilly) who’s even dumber than he is, Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) lives the high life until a disastrous encounter with a flamboyant French Formula One driver (
Sacha Baron Cohen) shatters his confidence and ruins his life. Can Ricky claw his way back to success? See for yourself and laugh till your sides ache.
“Ricky is a typical sports movie character,” claims Ferrell. “He came from simple beginnings and, as a boy, enjoyed the need for speed. His motto became ‘If you ain’t first, you’re last’ - something his daddy taught him early in life. That meant either winning or wrecking, a go-for-broke attitude that eventually would lead to his downfall.”
As on Anchorman, director
Adam McKayand star Ferrell planned to shoot as many improvisational variations on their scripted scenes as time would allow. “In a typical film comedy, you may do a scene as written 90% of the time,” explains Ferrell. “And you might do a take or two for fun off script. In our films, we pretty much do one take that is from the script and take off from there. A lot of actors aren’t used to working in that style and sometimes view improvisation as a burden. But once everyone gets into the flow of it, it becomes a really fun process.”
“I think how Adam and Will work is brilliant,” says Baron Cohen. “Will is such an amazing improviser. He has the ability to take any scene in a totally different direction. He’s so earnest and always so in character that it is incredibly easy to improvise with him.”
Two actors who were surprisingly adept at improvisation were John C. Reilly and former model
Leslie Bibb, a current regular on the popular television series Crossing Jordan. “We had actually offered John a part in Anchorman, but he couldn’t take it because he had committed to working with
Martin Scorsese on The Aviator,” recalls McKay. “He was so funny, he blew us away. So when we wrote this film, we knew we had to find a role for him. He is incredible, a revelation. We were amazed at how well he did with improvisation.”
Preparation to film the movie required Ferrell, Reilly and Baron Cohen to learn the driving fundamentals for sleek stock cars that are capable of reaching speeds of almost 200 miles per hour on the track. Along with McKay, the trio enrolled in a (hopefully) no-crash course at Lowe’s Motor Speedway to learn how to race a car on the track. With instructors from the Richard Petty Driving Experience, these Hollywood novices quickly found themselves behind the wheel of a powerful NASCAR race car.
“The first thing they do is have you ride shotgun with a real NASCAR driver at about 180 miles an hour around the track. It was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life," admits Baron Cohen.
After the ride along, the actors were then required to get behind the wheel themselves. “We did about eight or nine laps following a pace car,” says Ferrell. “They taught us how to take a line on the track, how to approach curves. I think I was going about 135 miles an hour. You kinda’ get hooked right away.”
It was Reilly, however, who ultimately won the right to be called “the world’s fastest actor,” according to Ferrell. “I think John got up to 143 miles an hour. Throughout, the three of us had only one goal: to beat Britney Spears, who had once gone 112 miles an hour. Fortunately, we all did.”
Perhaps the most affecting real-life moment for the actors came when Ferrell, Baron Cohen and Reilly were introduced as their characters to a Talladega crowd of 200,000 screaming fans. When Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton, Jr. were announced, the crowd went wild. But when Frenchman Jean Girard hit the stage, there was a collective - and deafening - boo.
“Adam said he was worried I would get depressed after the whole stadium booed me,” says Baron Cohen, “but I wasn’t surprised. It reminded me of the last time I went to Alabama, when I was playing a gay Austrian character for my show and was booed by 90,000 drunken men at the Alabama-Mississippi football game. The only way I got out alive was by switching clothes with the sound man!”
Perfectly cast and brilliantly played, full of surprises and memorable comic moments, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is silly and spirited and please, do yourself a favour and add this to your list right away.