00:00it's crazy to think that this movie is turning 23 years old this year yeah I was just doing a
00:06re-watch on HBO Max and they put it in a category titled yes these movies are 20 years old
00:11and so
00:13why was now the right time to revisit the making of this movie uh I you know I didn't make
00:22that
00:22decisions um Carrie Thornton who is the editor of Daystreet um she said hey I want to do a movie
00:33or I want to do a book about the making of Elf and I think Andy Richter would be a
00:37good person to write
00:38it uh and she was telling that to our agent and he said well I think we can make that
00:42happen so
00:43um it was kind of her call I didn't I wouldn't have thought I wouldn't have had the nerve to
00:48say
00:48I'm going to chronicle Elf you know um so she brought it to us and we said okay you know
00:55and
00:55it is good it maybe was maybe five years earlier would have been better because people's memories
01:01would be better uh because there was a lot and I mean for me personally I wrung out my memory
01:08banks
01:08for everything that I could remember from that um and and it was the same for everybody we talked to
01:13we're like any more particular anecdotes and I'm like look this is all I got it's 22 years ago
01:20well yeah there was a quote from I think it was Judd Apatow that was like I have no recollection
01:25yes yes yes we all like and we don't we there's no way to verify one of the producers says
01:32yeah I
01:32think because different people came in and this is a common thing especially with comedies they bring
01:37in a group of comedy writers to just do a quick pass and have suggestions bad jokes and one of
01:44the
01:44producers said uh Judd Apatow came in and worked on it and we I reached out to Judd he's like
01:50I have
01:51no recollection of working on that so he says he didn't but he might have and just doesn't remember
01:57you know I mean I wasn't even born when the movie came out so this is all right exactly yeah
02:03and Aaron
02:03coming into this project were you an elf fan how much how familiar were you with the movie and kind
02:09of the making of it coming into this project when our agent said to me uh uh we have a
02:13book project
02:14it's about a Christmas classic I thought it was going to be die hard um I was a very casual
02:19fan of
02:19elf I did not actually realize it was it was had such a fandom yeah uh then I of course
02:25realized
02:25that people go nuts for it when I tell people I co-wrote a book about elf they go nuts
02:29like
02:29buddy does when he finds out Santa is coming so now I just drop the fact that I am writing
02:35a book
02:35about elf even when no one's asked when when Will Ferrell showed up for the interview he was pissed
02:41that it wasn't Bruce Willis yeah it was weird it was strange awkward it was awkward yeah completely
02:46and the interview access you both got for this book was pretty incredible I mean the quotes span from
02:52Will Ferrell who also wrote the foreword yeah to Jon Favreau and even the actor who plays the
02:57iconic mailroom guy yeah loved getting to see those quotes take me through your process of
03:01reaching out to these interview subjects how hard was it to get in touch with everyone
03:06and he's a super that was I that way I booked the interviews too um you know that was that
03:13was
03:13really like because I had access to everybody some people I had to you know talk to their manager and
03:20see if I could get their email and stuff there were other people that were they're just a matter of
03:26you know Will and and a couple of the producers I I you know was friends with prior and continue
03:32to be friends with people were incredibly generous with their time a couple people said I don't do
03:37this but it's you so I'll do it so that's nice um it's I guess it pays to uh have
03:43dirt on people
03:43um and uh and it was it was it was really a fun process it was fun to get to
03:49talk to everybody
03:50was there anything that you couldn't include from the book or in the book or that you had to cut
03:54out
03:54throughout this process that's a good question I mean nothing that we're gonna tell you yeah I mean
04:00come on I I don't I don't want to pay lawyers um I think more discussion of sequels probably there
04:09were two sequel scripts written one was by Scott one was by Scott Armstrong who did rewrites who's
04:16who's a buddy of Andy's who wrote like New Line hired him he got paid a bunch of money and
04:20then the
04:20project just died and then the edge from U2 wrote a sequel of Elf on his own and called one
04:28of the
04:28producers and say I want to meet with you and they never met and we've never seen the script yeah
04:33no
04:33one knows what happened and we need to find out what happened with the edges yeah Sean Robertson said
04:38out of the blue yeah hey the edge wrote an elf too yeah want to meet with him and she
04:42was like
04:43absolutely and then it just never it never happened do you think the edge watches the decider or like
04:49I hope so we're gonna tag him and come on come on we need the edge to like release the
04:54cough it up yeah
04:55I love it and there were so many like what ifs with respect to the making of this movie especially
05:00when it came to its casting how Chris Farley was originally up for the role of buddy the elf Gary
05:06Shandling was being considered for Walter Hobbs and Katie Holmes and Selma Blair were contenders
05:11for Jovi I guess what was the what if that surprised you the most while writing this book and looking
05:15back I guess none of those really did I I'm I'm happy that it all turned out the way it
05:22was and
05:23Chris Farley was just you know that the script was passed around for eight years before it settled at
05:28New Line and he was just attached to it for a moment and we don't have any way of knowing
05:33exactly what
05:34that meant and that you know a good amount of the book is about that is about how close you
05:40know how
05:41close it came to the you know Bob Shea at New Line not writing a check to start the movie
05:46so it might
05:48have happened because nobody was a sure bet everybody was fairly fresh and untested in terms of feature
05:55films and that's that was the days when there was a big difference there was TV and there was movies
06:00now
06:00it's all together to me what was interesting is not just that Selma Blair was considered for Jovi but
06:07it was because she was skateboards or she's as well that was yeah cuz John wanted to have a that
06:12a skill
06:13of the actress be a skill of Jovi's right which is why Zoe and Jovi say Zoe sings so Jovi
06:19sings and Selma
06:21skateboard so they were gonna have her skateboard a skateboarding Joe what was your special talent
06:26um showing up on time okay yeah yeah sure you know what a very essential yeah it's it's rare
06:32these days exactly and how many times did you both re-watch Elf in the process of writing this book
06:40I think about three for me I mean it's so different because he's in the movie yeah he was literally
06:46there
06:46um I think I pretty much have it memorized it's also a very short movie yeah it's like 85 minutes
06:52long
06:52um but I've also watched um all the um directors there's a there's a Will Ferrell commentary and a
07:00Jon Favreau commentary which they don't really do that anymore it's pretty it's pretty it's pretty
07:07boring yeah yeah thank sorry Will yeah sorry you've been so generous with your time yeah your DVD
07:16commentary was boring and outside of Elf what are your go-to Christmas movies to watch during the
07:21holiday season well Die Hard is my favorite movie so I would say Die Hard is one and two for
07:26me what
07:27about you what you mean Die Hard one and Die Hard two are just watching Die Hard again I do
07:31both I do
07:32like Die Hard two and I'm sure Andy's gonna say the 1942 classic no 1951 version of A Christmas Carol
07:38starring Alistair Sim there is a version of A Christmas Carol uh that's it's fantastic it's good
07:46I don't know I mean there's also this movie it's a wonderful life it's pretty good Christmas themed
07:53vaguely that's a good one
