To achieve the out-of-the-ordinary experience of being Harold Crick, Ferrell traced the evolution of the feelings the character might undergo upon discovering that he is “being followed by a woman’s voice” – from comic shock to deep despair to a determination to try to change his fate. “I think, at the start, Harold is generally freaked out by the whole thing,” laughs Ferrell. “He’s worried, upset and doesn’t know what to think, because he’s not sure if what’s happening to him is real or not. His reactions are typical of those most of us would have. The comedy comes from his attempts to maintain his composure so no one thinks he’s crazy.”
On set, Ferrell was able to literally re-create the experience of having a voice in his head because Emma Thompson had pre-recorded her narration, which was then played to Ferrell through an ear-piece during his scenes. “Emma has such a great voice,” he remarks. “It was great fun to have her in my head, and also weird for all the right reasons.”
Ferrell also worked diligently on his character’s transformation while trying to keep Harold’s mild-mannered essence intact. “Harold starts out with all these routines. He takes a 45.7-minute lunch break and a 4.3-minute coffee break and he’s always counting everything because that’s his way of maintaining control over his life,” the actor observes. “Then, that’s all taken away from him when he realizes someone else has seized control. But after Harold has lost that control, some interesting things begin to happen to him. Once Harold figures out that there might be no going back and no escaping, he starts to really live his life and explore everything he had taken for granted or didn’t even know existed. It changes everything and everyone around him – but underneath he’s still Harold.”
The casting of Ferrell was the catalyst that brought all the other elements of STRANGER THAN FICTION together. “He was the key piece of the puzzle, and once we cast him, everything else fell into place,” observes executive producer Kopeloff.
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