Adam McKay Reveals the Real Reason He and Will Ferrell Stopped Making Comedies

Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are behind some of the most iconic comedies of the 2000s, including Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers. 

In a recent interview with Business Insider, McKay spoke about why their professional relationship ended.  

“It’s a shame because we had a great creative partnership,” he said. “I think both of us underestimated the complications that go with not just having a company, but a very successful company.” 

The duo ended their partnership in 2019, which included dissolving their production company, Gary Sanchez, which they created in 2006.

“We had it for a long time and did a lot of cool projects. And Ferrell said it publicly, he was never someone who wanted to produce, so he was always half in and half out, but then he would love it and be proud of the company, but by the end, he wanted to move on,” McKay recalled.  

“It had become too much extra work; it was never his passion. I was really the one who wanted to produce, but a movie star’s life is very different than a writer-director’s life. So we split up.”

The director shared that he would be open to working with Ferrell again, 

“I totally have been open to the idea. We always got along great, we were tremendous creative partners,” McKay said of the actor. “The only thing that caused acrimony between us was when we decided to end our production company, Gary Sanchez. And I know it was reported one way or the other, but that was really it.”

The 58-year-old filmmaker reflected on his time with Ferrell. 

“Ferrell and I always worked well because we tended to get excited about the same things and neither one of us was precious if the other one felt really excited by something. I always say we never had one single creative argument working on any script we did together.”