Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds swap late-night appearances, just because
Look, sometimes you have to shake up the standard press tour routine
TV News Ryan Reynolds
Both late-night Jimmys were suitably flummoxed when they introduced Red Notice star Ryan Reynolds and The Shrink Next Door’s Will Ferrell on their respective shows on Wednesday. Jimmy Kimmel, with note cards dutifully stocked with Reynolds-centric questions, found himself instead interviewing Ferrell, while Jimmy Fallon got the vice-versa treatment over on the Tonight Show, with both hosts doing a creditable job at selling this as a genuine surprise goof from the two comic actors.
“Just helpin’ out a buddy,” explained Ferrell as to his appearance in Kimmel’s Hollywood studio, telling the surprised but game host that he’d just gotten a call that Reynolds was running a little late. Which makes sense, since Reynolds was in New York, appearing in Ferrell’s place on Fallon’s show. (And also explains why Ferrell appeared sporting what looked like his Star Wars pajama bottom loungewear and comfy house-moccasins.) Ferrell does traditionally bring an abusurd conceptual bit along to liven up his talk show rounds, so, in response to Kimmel’s flat-footed bafflement at the switcheroo, The Shrink Next Door star did his level best to answer the questions Kimmel had already prepared.
“I haven’t seen a stitch of it,” Ferrell admitted concerning Reynolds new film Red Notice, but that didn’t stop him from dishing on how it was to work with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot in the Netflix action-comedy. Dutifully watching the clip Reynolds’ people had sent over, Ferrell could only speculate that the film (technically about high-class art thievery) was about Johnson and Reynolds being “classy real estate agents” forcibly evicting a Russian guy who’s late on his rent. (Pal that he is, however, Ferrell did repeatedly and correctly plug Red Notice’s Friday release.) Ferrell also did his level best to answer Kimmel’s questions about Reynolds personal life. Wife Blake Lively is fine, thanks, and two-thirds of their three (?) daughters went as Deadpool for Halloween.
Over on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon was left contending with a similar deadpan switch-’em-up, as Reynolds emerged to the Tonight Show audience’s confused delight and similarly tried to guess just what Ferrell and Paul Rudd’s Apple series The Shrink Next Door is about. Seeing Rudd, Reynolds could only posit that Ant-Man would be doing the shrinking, with the real-life-inspired period drama being part of the MCU’s more grounded and introspective “Phase 16.”
Warning Fallon that he was only there to fulfill the blood oath he’d made to his long-ago Dick costar Ferrell, Reynolds told the host sincerely, “If you bring up Red Notice, you will taste the back of my hand.” Instead, Reynolds reacted to Fallon holding up newly crowned Sexiest Man Alive Rudd’s People cover, with now-dethroned sexy man Reynolds conceding that Rudd, being “the nicest human being in all of show business,” deserves the honor, if anyone does. He also speculated that Rudd’s ageless beauty is due either to a deal with Satan or an all “breast milk from a blue whale” diet, both of which check out.
Reynolds noted that, for those people who actually want to see him and Ferrell on the same coast and in the same room together, the pair will appear in Apple TV’s upcoming Spirited. It’s another A Christmas Carol riff, with Reynolds as Scrooge and Ferrell as the Ghost Of Christmas Present, unless the two actors get bored and swap roles without telling anyone.
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I was somewhat nonplussed right up until the last paragraph. Yay, another Christmas Carol adaptation, we sure need more of those. Maybe next they’ll come up with a Christmas Carol/Paranormal Activity crossover, they haven’t tried that yet.
The spirit of Christmas is back… with a vengeance!
ChristmasCarol2:ElectricGhostaloo
You joke, but “found footage Christmas Carol ghosts” does sound like a pitch that could sell.
“The spirit of Christmas is back… with a vengeance!”- Shane Black’s Ghost Rider, coming December 2022.
We already had a Christmas Carol horror movie. It was the Robert Zemeckis motion capture one. Some of that was truly frightening!
Man, this would have made me finally watch Kimmel or Fallon. Okay no, not Fallon, never Fallon.
Never Fallon. ✊
This is a good stunt. Totally buy that Kimmel didn’t know, not as sure about Fallon, but it’s hard to tell with all the stupid mugging he does. The joke is much better that it’s Ferrell instead of Rudd, too.
Kimmel seemed like he wasn’t 100% in on the joke. I know talk shows are usually scripted, or the topics are agreed upon before hand (most of the time) but I’d be willing to bet someone at least notified him that something was going to happen.Or he just really good at playing the part.
When I watched Kimmel, I wasn’t sure whether it was a work or not. When I watched Fallon, it became clear that it was.
There’s always a chance Fallon knew before hand while Kimmel didn’t.
That’s possible. The thing I thought of, though, is that they surely would’ve had to go through makeup and then wait in the green room. It seems unlikely that neither host would’ve run into them or greeted them at some point before the show. If the production staff were in on it, though, they could’ve come up with plausible reasons to keep them hidden.
Feels like the Jimmys were given the premise (Ferrell and Reynolds promote the other’s movie) and not much else.
There are layers and layers of guest management on these shows. There is no way the hosts are not in on it unless the entire production staff including the producers is on it and that seems extremely unlikely. This goes all the way down to having security passes for the guest, covid protocols etc.
Not exactly. They’ve had shows where a guest canceled and another celeb nearby ended up coming on the show instead unplanned. I distinctly remember an episode of Conan with Kumail Nanjiani being brought on as a replacement because he happened to be nearby shooting scenes for Silicon Valley.Of course, that could have all been a fake setup, and it was pre-covid.
It just doesn’t make sense. You have people greeting the guests, you have PAs showing them around, you have hair and makeup, you have people in charge of the green room, you have stage mangers and show directors and all along the line someone is asking “Has Paul Rudd arrived?” “Has Paul Rudd signed the paperwork for the appearance?” “Has anyone taken Paul Rudd to hair and makeup?” “After commercial break Paul Rudd is set to go on stage, do you have him standing by?” “Um this is Bobby, the PA, well um none of that is happening, but Will Ferrell has been hanging out in his pajamas for some reason, should I send him out there?”
Television isn’t made that way.
Not to mention they do rehearsals ahead of time with the pre-scripted banter tested in front of an earlier audience. Someone on the wrong coast gets noticed.It’s all fake.
It’s all fake.Right, and I agree 99% because just once I’d like to believe it’s not fake.
You have that backwards. Nanjiani was meant to be a guest (On the first episode of Conan’s new format, as I recall), but was stuck in shooting for Silicon Valley and was unable to make it. As a result, Conan interviewed Sona, his assistant. Although it seems like a cancellation with enough notice could be accommodated with any old nearby celebrity, he mentions that one drawback of his then new show format was that with only one guest, he would virtually helpless if anyone cancelled too late.
I suspected I may have had that backwards lol.
How much of the back half of Kimmel’s interview was him increasingly messing with Ferrell though? Like, I don’t think it’s impossible that Reynolds can do a standing backflip, especially with the trainers he has, but it feels more like he just started raising the stakes to see what he could get Ferrell to do. Did Reynolds actually learn how to rap during quarantine?
This is delightful. I think Kimmel’s a much better sport and more willing to go with this (assuming he wasn’t in on it) than Fallon, who I am thrilled to see look completely lost and confused.
resting amicable dumb face.
I am thrilled to see look completely lost and confusedDoes he have any other look?
I would have been pissed if I’d been in Kimmel’s audience.
Yeah, plus it would have been annoying that the guest had changed.
Even being a Kimmel fan, this made me laugh. Cheers to you.