Will Ferrell says Ron Burgundy is just trying to be accepted

TORONTO — The nine-year wait for a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy comes to an end this month with the release of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

According to star and co-writer Will Ferrell, a follow-up to the 2004 comedy almost didn’t happen.

“We were dead set against making a sequel of any of the movies we’ve done,” he said.

In fact, added Ferrell, the original Anchorman movie almost didn’t get made either.

“It was such an arduous journey to get the first one made,” he recalled, “because here we were going around Hollywood pitching a comedy about news and no one was biting.”

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In an interview with Leslie Roberts, Toronto anchor for Global’s News Hour and co-host of Global’s The Morning Show, Ferrell said he and director/co-writer Adam McKay didn’t hold back when it came to crafting a comeback for Ron Burgundy.

“If we were going to do a sequel we wanted to take a big huge comedy swing and not play anything safe,” explained Ferrell.

He said audiences can’t help but love Burgundy.

“People love watching this guy who thinks he’s an expert talker on any sort of subject,” said Ferrell, “and he clearly isn’t.

“He may say some things inappropriate or have a certain attitude but at the end of the day he’s just someone who’s trying to be accepted.”

In the new flick, opening Dec. 18, Burgundy and his colleagues — Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner — take a road trip from San Diego to New York City when they’re hired by the 24-hour Global News Network.

The first Anchorman earned only $90.6 million at the box office but the sequel is expected to do better. So, will there be another chapter?

“To think about a third one… I mean, we’re just going to see what happens with this one.”