Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart get ridiculous about Get Hard, race relations and doing time

COMEDY A-listers Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart reveal they’ve both been to jail. You’ll never guess what the Get Hard stars were locked up for.

WILL Ferrell may be best loved for bringing us the full moustache and flowing flares of ’70s newsreader Ron Burgundy and variants on the laughable manchild, but as a Hollywood power player, he’s bang on trend.

As a founder of the Funny Or Die website (home to Between Two Ferns) he was an early adopter of streaming free content. As a producer, he has helped the careers of Melissa McCarthy and Danny McBride. He even knew Mark Wahlberg was funny before the rest of us.

Grilled ... Kevin Hart was Roastmaster at Comedy Central’s skewering of Justin Bieber last month.

So it’s no surprise to learn Ferrell had his eye on working with Kevin Hart before the stand-up comedian sealed his box office-busting status in the US with the $176 million hit Ride Along.

Get Hard is another film from Ferrell’s company with Anchorman writer/director Adam McKay, Gary Sanchez Productions. Ferrell plays a hedge-fund guy who asks the only African American he knows, law-abiding car-washer Hart, to toughen him up before going to jail.

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“I’d been looking for something to do with Kevin and this is the perfect fit,” says Ferrell.

Unfortunately, however, after making the film together, promoting the film together, lip-synching on Jimmy Fallon and roasting Justin Bieber together, when Ferrell and Hart sit down to talk with Hit, they appear to be fed up with each other.

“Ahhh yes, we are,” says Ferrell. “Thank you for addressing the elephant in the room. The elephant has been spotted.”

“Definitely,” adds Hart. “Don’t. Like. Will.”

Of course, that could be every bit as true as the rest of the chat that followed ...

Boyz n the hood ... Ferrell and Hart in a scene from Get Hard.

Will, how did you first discover Kevin’s comedy stylings?

Will Ferrell: Every Tuesday when I’m in town — meaning Los Angeles — I like to pick up hitchhikers, as kind of a public service. Because we forget, it used to be an acceptable mode of transportation, especially in more of our rural communities where people don’t have cars. So I see this guy wanting to get a ride, he hops in ...

Kevin Hart: That’s me.

WF: ... I’m like, ‘Where you heading?’ ‘Torrance.’ ‘Oh OK, South Bay, that’s fine, a little out of my way. What’s your name?’ ‘I’m Kevin.’ He just made me laugh and I’m like, ‘You should get into comedy’ and he’s like, ‘Actually that’s what I do’ and we’ve been friends ever since.

And now you’ve made a comedy together, Get Hard. Kevin, Will’s company produced the film, so did that mean he was your boss on set?

KH: Well, as much as I would like to say no, the white man was in charge.

(WF laughs uncontrollably.) Will definitely was the boss; I went into it understanding that. I went into it loving the fact I had the opportunity to work with a guy that I respected and looked up to.

Was he a benevolent boss?

KH: Ahh, OK don’t be mad at me, my educational background does not ... I don’t know what that word means.

WF: I’ll answer for Kevin. I was benevolent. But I was still a firm taskmaster.

KH: Let’s just back it up, ’cos I just want to understand ... Does that word mean that you ate a lot?

WF: Benevolent means kind. And I was. I was kind, I was fair ...

KH: Well why can’t you just say ‘kind’? Why do you have to confuse me? I don’t understand why you’d do that.

WF: ... but at the same time, I was a stickler for details.

Stereotypes ... Ferrell’s rich businessman just assumes Hart’s car washer must have been to prison in Get Hard.

In Get Hard, upstanding small business operator Darnell (Hart) teaches shonky, rich white collar criminal James (Ferrell) how to survive in jail. Kevin, do you think you taught Will anything in the process of making the film?

KH: I taught Will two things. I taught Will how to beatbox. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with a game called Chuck Dice, it’s a game we used to play on my block where you have three dice, you chuck one of them and the other two ... it’s complicated. But Will’s got it, he knows it now.

WF: It’s like Yahtzee, in the black community.

Did you want to make a serious comment on race relations in the US with the film?

KH: Well I don’t want to say ‘serious’. We’re dealing in a very clever way with stereotypes. Ultimately, the goal is to make people laugh at themselves and realise that the art of judging people is getting old. If you don’t know a person, you shouldn’t assume, not until you understand and know that person for who they really are.

Down Under Kevin Hart in Melbourne last year. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Will, did the idea for the film come from wondering how high-profile convicts such as Martha Stewart would fare in prison?

WF: The idea really came from Adam McKay — whenever we got together to talk about movies, he’d always have this idea of regardless of what walk of life you come from, what would that moment be like if you were wrongly accused of something and had to go to prison? How would you prepare yourself? Could you prepare yourself? What would be the things that go through your mind at that moment? We just thought that would be a really funny movie.

Have either of you been behind bars?

KH: Well, judging by my arms, I’m quite sure that you can tell that I have. I’m what you would call jail-fit, due to my rough upbringing. Thuggin’ and lovin’, is what we called it. Only been to jail twice for a total of 3½ hours of my life and in that time I’ve done 857 push ups.

WF: I’ve been to jail once when I was protesting for the National Organisation for Women.

KH: Oh Will, that’s ridiculous.

WF: I was there and I think we made our point clear.

What were you protesting about?

WF: Just give ladies a chance ... in general.

KH: Just in general? Ballpark?

WF: Ballpark. Give the gals a fighting chance.

KH: That makes sense. I agree.

In the film, James says to Darnell that the colour of his skin means “statistically, you’ve been to prison”. So you fit the statistics, Kevin.

KH: You know what’s funny? As much as you would want to debate that line, I actually was telling some of my friends from home about the premise of the movie and they were like, ‘Man, that’s crazy! That’s wild!’ I was like, ‘Well, looking at you guys, it would have been true!’ All of my friends fit the bill (laughs).

Kevin curls ... Ferrell en route to a world record.

Will, you use Kevin as a barbell in the movie. What’s your record of Kevin curls?

WF: I actually set the Guinness Book of World Records for curling a human on that shoot. I had 23 human curls. Unfortunately, we just got word it was just broken in Iceland.

KH: That’s right, by, what’s his name? Goodness gracious ...

WF: Magnus Magnussen, world’s strongest man.

Kevin, what did you learn from Will?

KH: I learnt how to look people in the eye when I talk to ’em. Will told me, ‘Hey! Hey! When you talk to me you look me in the eye! Sign of respect!’ Ever since then, I have been saying the same thing to my kids. Oh and I had a problem with supinating and pronating and Will got me some arches from the podiatrist.

WF: I’m a big proponent of arch support.

KH: My feet haven’t been the same. No going back to the flatfoot life for me!

You each took part in the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special, but in very different ways. Kevin how did you feel about your failed audition being shown?

KH: I was blown away, first and foremost. All of the legends that show has produced ... just to be mentioned in that great company was amazing. Them showing that audition tape is doubly funny because people now know why I didn’t make it!

Dream team ... Will Ferrell with his Anchorman 2 co-stars Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner in Sydney in 2013.

And Will, you reprised your infamous Jeopardy game show segment.

WF: It was a nice reunion. Very nostalgic and hard to believe that I started on the show in ’95 — it’s been 20 years since my first season. Twenty years have gone by very quickly.

What’s your favourite film from each other’s back catalogue?

KH: This is gonna sound bad but I don’t watch none o’ Will’s movies. I don’t want you to take it the wrong way ... but I’m just not big on what he’s done.

WF: I did not like Ride Along ...

KH: Oh, come on!

WF: But I had a chance to see Ride Along 2 and I love it!

KH: Wait a second!

WF: I downloaded it off the internet ...

KH: Wait a minute!

WF: ... and it is wonderful.

KH: Will, we haven’t even put that out! No, you can’t!

WF (To Hit): I’m happy to send you a copy.

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Originally published as Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart get ridiculous about Get Hard, race relations and doing time