How did the actors get into the mindset of news anchors from the 1970s? How difficult was keeping a straight face? Just how much of ?Anchorman? was improvised? Those questions, along with others that actually had to do with time on the set and the filming of ?Anchorman,? were not seriously addressed by the movie?s cast and director. Instead, the ?Anchorman? press conference played out like an unscripted sit-com.

If you?re looking for in-depth analysis by Will Ferrell and the rest of the ?Anchorman? cast, look elsewhere. Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, and director Adam McKay had fun with each other ? and the journalists ? and the following transcript is the end result:

Will, did you base your characters on any anchors from the 70s or was this an amalgamation of a lot of people?
WILL FERRELL: I based my character on an imaginary figure by the name of Walter Pinbrook. And Walter Pinbrook was a lieutenant in the French Navy during the 1800s. Not a lot of literature on Walter Pinbrook. No, I didn't base it on anyone. I didn't really watch that much tape, either.

Where did the character come from? You co-wrote the script.
WILL FERRELL: Right. From Adam and I, we'd get together, we'd get a case of gin. We sit down, we go to our mountain retreat.

ADAM McKAY: We go into a haze not unlike Martin Sheen in the beginning of ?Apocalypse Now.? In the hotel room.

WILL FERRELL: And it gets ugly.

For a while, it gets ugly.

ADAM McKAY: We punch mirrors and we explore our darker selves. No, it's just an amalgam of all newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these people were like gods.

Was there a lot of improv going on during the production of the movie?
DAVID KOECHNER: We were fined if we didn't follow the script. We had a $5 fine meted out if you did not pronounce every word of the script and take note of punctuation. Even now I'm not supposed to speak.

ADAM McKAY: We are actually scripted for this today. I hope you don't mind, but there are cue cards behind all of you right here. No. There was tons of improv on this. A lot of it did show up [in the movie].

WILL FERRELL: Ad-libs. We call them make-em ups sometimes too. So I don't know if you want to use that. It's a technical term.

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE: Throw-ins. Make-em ups.

DAVID KOECHNER: Off-the-cuffies.

STEVE CARELL: Quipsters.

WILL FERRELL: Quipsters. Silly beans.

Adam, can you talk about directing that sort of activity, and trying to keep a through-line throughout the production? We've heard that there's an eight-hour director's cut of the movie.
ADAM McKAY: Eight hours? That would be amazing. We did have a four-hour cut of the movie.

(Will Ferrell breathes heavily into the microphone)

ADAM McKAY: Will, you're breathing too close to the mic.

WILL FERRELL: Oh! Sorry.

ADAM McKAY: When you're not talking, just stay away because you tend to breathe very heavily. Yeah, we did. At one point, we had a four-hour cut of the movie. It was all new scenes.

(Will continues moaning very loudly into the microphone)

ADAM McKAY: You're still too close. We can hear you. Just when you're not talking, back off completely.

WILL FERRELL: I'll totally back off. That's fine. (Will pulls away from the microphone and stares at McKay in anger.)

ADAM McKAY: We did. We had a four-hour version of the movie that was just littered with whole runs and stuff like that. (Adam notices Will?s staring at him.) Now you're just mocking me.

WILL FERRELL: No, I was just exhaling.

Will we ever see that version of the movie?
ADAM McKAY: Absolutely not. Next question, please. Yeah, we're going to put out a DVD with all of it. We literally had enough extra footage, we made a whole, second movie called ?Wake Up, Ron Burgundy.? I'm actually not kidding. That is not a joke. It's absolutely true. It's an hour and forty minute second movie of entirely fresh material that will eventually be put out on DVD.

Did DreamWorks commit to putting that out?
ADAM McKAY: Yeah. They told us they were. I mean, define committed. I chased down Katzenberg and said, "Are you going to put it out?" And he said, "Get off me! Get your arm off me!" I took that as a yes.

Is there going to be more than one DVD release?
ADAM McKAY: I think they're going to do one kinda straight-ahead release where it's just a movie with some outtakes. And then they're going to do a second release. It's like a two DVD set with the second movie on it.

I want to ask you guys about the big fight scene, and then ask Christina about her fight scene with Will.
WILL FERRELL: We'd rather you didn't. Let's move on.

DAVID KOECHNER: May I also mention that buried within this new hour and forty minute movie is an adult film. It's buried in there, too.

WILL FERRELL: An adult film?

DAVID KOECHNER: Yes. And we all participated. Just because you see a blacked out line across people's eyes, I think you'll know who's in the orgy.

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