Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis Reveal Campaign Inspiration: So Not Mitt Romney

John Edwards inspired Ferrell's scandal-plagued politician in the new comedy

By John Boone Aug 03, 2012 7:17 PMTags
Will Ferrell, Zach GalifianakisDave Allocca/Startraksphoto.com

All's fair in love and war...but politics?! Well, anything goes when it comes to getting yourself elected, which just so happens to be the premise behind funnymen Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis' latest romp, The Campaign. We caught up with the two at last night's premiere, and things got dirty. Election-year dirty. Well, kinda.

Ferrell plays a scandal-plagued congressman, Cam Brady, who goes head to head with Galifianakis' everyman Marty Huggins on the mud-strewn campaign trail. So were the two inspired by any real life politicos? The short answer: yes.

As you'll surely remember, conservative radio jockey Rush Limbaugh accused The Dark Knight Rises of using the villainous Bane as a jab at Mitt Romney (a claim director Christopher Nolan called "very peculiar"). So it wouldn't be too far out to assume presidential hopeful Mitt Romney might have had some influence.

But breathe easy, Romney, it wasn't you.

"We're kind of so inundated with everything on all these politicians so I got to draw from a lot of different people," Ferrell explained to us at the film's premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater. "One guy physically that I loved was John Edwards, that's where I got the hairstyle from. I love the idea that someone would spend $900 on a haircut."

We're sure Edwards', uh, little scandal might have provided some inspiration as well.

As for Zach, he stayed away from the 24-hour news cycle when it came to crafting his character.

"Not really, it was just a character I've been doing since high school," he revealed to us. "Will saw me do the character on TV, I think, and we sat and had lunch. I had kind of come to the filming of the movie with this character already in mind."

That said, Zach and Will both agree that the movie—even with all its baby punching, snake wrangling, crossbow shooting hijinks—will draw a lot of parallels to the current race for the White House between Romney and President Barack Obama.

"It's funny and it's outrageous and sadly it's not that far from the truth," Will weighed in, making sure to point out that the film pokes fun at both political parties. "I think you'll see a lot of things that make you laugh but then you'll leave the theater going, 'Oh, that's crazy but we're not that far from getting there.'"

Zach put it simply, "Sadly, it's too similar."