Christina Applegate recently appeared on The View to promote her new memoir, Sad Eyes, and talked about how Will Ferrell and Adam McKay gave her a portion of her Anchorman salary when the studio’s original offer for the role of Veronica Corningstone fell far short of their male co-stars.
“When they brought us the first offer, it was, you know, a little bit off-putting,” Applegate said. “And I said no, I know my worth, but I can’t do it. They wanted me enough, and they said, ‘Then we’ll work together.’ I’m grateful they did that, because it was one of the best experiences of my life. ”
Applegate continued, “It was a huge learning experience. I had never improvised before. I learned from a group of guys…that’s the master class that people pay to do. Steve Carell taught it. Adam McKay developed a whole new way of doing it with his group. It was absolutely magical to go in there and make it happen, and that was invaluable to me and my career.”
“Anchorman” centers on San Diego news anchor Ron Burgundy, played by Ferrell, as he clashes with his new female co-anchor (Applegate’s Veronica Corningstone). The supporting cast includes Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Fred Willard. The film was one of the most cited comedies of the early ’80s and spawned a sequel in 2013, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, also starring Applegate.
Applegate and Ferrell reunited on the former’s podcast in 2024 to commemorate the classic comedy’s 20th anniversary. Ferrell recalled the first test screenings of Anchorman and how things didn’t go as planned because of the original ending, which featured the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, in which Applegate’s Veronica was “kidnapped by vigilantes.”
“We assemble the movie and do the first test screening. When we test the movie, we give it a score from 0 to 100,” Ferrell said. “We were like, ‘Looks like we’re going to play really great.’ We get the score back. It’s 50. That’s not good. That’s not good. It could go either way. Either the panic button was hit, or luckily the studio was like, ‘Let’s figure it out.’ They gave us a budget for reshoots. Judd (Apatow) gave us some solid help in that regard. Reshoots took five days, including the pandas, bears and everything. A completely new ending was filmed. ”
Anchorman was released in theaters on July 9, 2004 and grossed $90 million worldwide.
