Did you know that watching “Sanford and Son” prepares you for prison life? While that statement isn’t entirely true, Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell joked about that and many other items during a Warner Bros. Entertainment conference call Q+A session Saturday for their new film, “Get Hard.” The film stars Ferrell as a hedge fund manager that goes to jail. He hires out Hart to prepare him for prison, despite Hart being a small business owner that has no experience whatsoever with the prison system. The film challenges many previously held stereotypes, some of which are touched on in the following questions.
Q: What is a common misconception about the prison system that you learned in the making of this film?
Kevin Hart: In jail, they do use buckets to go #2.
Will Ferrell: The common misconception would be that there’s any nice part of prison.
Q: As both very successful comedians, is there anything you may have learned from one another by working on the film?
KH: Will’s approach to his craft is very professional, very humble, a guy who really appreciates everything and is grounded. I think that’s why he’s in the position he’s in today.
WF: Yeah, I think Kevin and I share the same philosophy. We obviously like to have a good time, we’re so thankful to be in this profession. We try to stay grounded and work very hard.
Q: What was it like working with Etan Cohen given it was his first time directing?
WF: It was a great experience working with Etan. We surrounded him with a really good team in terms of all the key department heads, so he was allowed to do his strong point, which is monitoring the comedy. It’s a real benefit when you can have a writer as strong as Etan feeding you extra jokes.
KH: We got lucky. We got a guy, a first-time director, but he’s been behind the camera a lot to where he’s soaked up some knowledge and was protected with a team of producers who knew what they were doing as well. Etan was in his groove as the movie progressed. I take my hat off to Sony, they did really well.
Q: What got you guys on board for this movie? What interested you?
WF: This was an idea that Adam McKay, and I had for a long time. We kind of generated the idea from our company (Gary Sanchez Productions), and as we started digging through the casting, trying to figure out who would be great to pair up with, the first name we started with was Kevin’s. We called him up and pitched him the idea. Lucky for us, he was into it. That was kind of how the whole project came together.
Q: With your experience on set during “Get Hard” production, do you feel you’re now “hard” enough to survive in prison and, if so, what role would you play in prison?
WF: I unfortunately don’t feel any more qualified or confident that I would survive in prison. My best strategy would be to not go. I would just have to act crazy to keep people away from me, but they’ve seen that before.
Q: A lot of your movies like “Step Brothers” and “Ride Along” use improv or ad-libbing. How close did you stick to the script and how much does that matter when it comes to hitting comedic punchlines?
KH: When it comes to something funny being written on the page, it’s pretty hard to improv on the page. What really matters is having a good foundation, and we had a good foundation. From that foundation, we felt that we could elevate certain areas, but we always wanted to get our scene. We felt our writers did a great job with doing it.
Q: You guys make a really good comedic duo, both physically and because you’re very smart comedians. If you could pick one classic comedy to remake, which one would you do?
KH: “Turner and Hooch!” That would be amazing.
WF: I believe that was Tom Hanks with a dog, right?
KH: Yeah. You think you’re playing Hooch, you’re wrong! I’m playing Hooch.
WF: “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
Q: Etan is responsible for writing “Idiocracy” and “Tropic Thunder.” What drew you to his style and flair and made you want to work with him?
WF: Etan is obviously an established comedy writer in Hollywood with a pretty great track record. I think he was in town, just on the short list of those guys who was next in line to direct a feature. He’d done a short film that had attracted some notice. When you talk to him about a script in terms of his articulation on a story, you could tell he sounded like a director. That gave us the confidence to work with him. He also wore those old khaki director pants, spoke through a bullhorn and used a writing prop. Those things really made him appear like a director.
Q: You guys showed the film at South by Southwest. This is a mainstream star-driven comedy at an independent festival. How did the atmosphere of this differ from other premieres?
KH: The energy we had at South by Southwest was amazing. That was one of the most energetic theater crowds that I’ve ever seen. Staying and watching the movie with them, it was unreal. They laughed the whole way through. It’s different than what we’re used to.
WF: When you take it out amongst the people, so to speak, that’s when you get that authentic reaction.
KH: Not that it’s bad in Los Angeles, but it’s great to take it out to places that don’t normally get it.
Q: Why is it important to have the ability to laugh with some of the serious social tensions you touch on in “Get Hard?”
WF: It’s just a great way to kind of explore our differences. Once you get through the chatter, you realize how similar we all are. Examining it through the filter of comedy, you’re able to point out how silly these attitudes are that pop up from time to time.
Q: Were there any prison movies or TV shows that inspired you?
KH: For me, yes. I watched a lot of “Mad” and “Sanford & Son.”
WF: I watched a lot of shows on the Cooking Channel. I’d say it was a waste of time. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t watch those shows.
