From the start, Will Ferrell was Ron Burgundy. Although his role is admittedly something of a caricature, Ferrell still got inspiration from watching old footage of some local anchormen “It was such a fun era to look back on,” he says. “We’ve kind of forgotten now what it was like because, for the most part, things have become more equal in terms of gender roles. But when you look back at the attitudes then, it seems so silly. It’s great to be able to play on the fact that these guys are male chauvinists. We are not glorifying male chauvinists, we are making fun of them.”
Ron Burgundy might see it otherwise. “Ron thinks he is a lot smarter and more talented than he really is,” Ferrell notes. “He has somehow gotten by on his charisma and although he is—let’s face it—a terrible journalist, San Diego just loves him.”
McKay agrees. “Ron Burgundy exudes all the intelligence and commanding qualities of an anchorman, but there’s not a whole lot behind it. He owns a lot of books that he’s probably never read and is very into all the trappings of class and status, but at the root, he’s just a good voice.”
Nevertheless, Apatow states, “Ron Burgundy is the king of his town. He and the rest of the guys are having a ball, drinking and smoking and living their male chauvinist lives. But then Veronica Corningstone comes to town, and that’s when the trouble begins.”
“Ron and his news team are literally the life of the party in San Diego,” Ferrell remarks. “They’re very charismatic; they’re not necessarily good. Then the news director tells them the network is looking to diversify and they don’t even know what that means.”
It means Veronica Corningstone. “Veronica’s arrival is the most shocking thing the men could ever imagine happening,” McKay comments. “They may have seen weather girls before, but this woman is coming in as a reporter and that had simply never happened. To make matters worse, she is not only obviously beautiful, but they can tell she is smart and strong.”
In casting the role of Veronica, McKay says, “We had to get the perfect person. Without exaggerating, I think we read more than 100 actresses for that role, but no one fit the bill. Then Christina walked in, and that was it. She’s such a good actress and so funny, and she can improvise, which is important when you’re working with Will, so we just had to have her.”
A self-described “tough critic,” Applegate offers, “When I got the script, I thought it was really hysterical, and I could see Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy. The whole idea really appealed to me. If you look back at tapes of newscasters during the early ‘70s, they seem incredibly misogynistic. No offense to any of them, but it was a man’s world. You could smoke and even have your scotch while doing the newscast; it was just a completely different world run by these very macho men. So, that’s what Veronica steps into. They have their perfect world where they have everything under control, and in walks Veronica and turns everything upside down.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
