Christmas movies are a pretty big tradition in a lot of people's homes. I mean, December 1 hits and all of a sudden everyone's watching It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, and even Die Hard.
But you'll be hard-pressed to find a Christmas movie with such cultural impact as Elf. It's become a staple of a lot of people's holiday experiences.
However, when it was being made, did you know it was regarded as "risky"? That's right - the movie may not have even happened at all if not for some execs "rolling the dice".
As reported by People, Andy Richter, who played Morris in the now-classic movie, explained that part of the problem was Will Ferrell, strangely enough.
"It was a risky movie, and nobody thinks about that because it's now a classic, but at the time there was nobody that was aching to make a movie with Will Ferrell as the star or with Jon Favreau as the director, for that matter," he recalled.
And that has nothing to do with Ferrell himself, mind - it was just that he'd "never been number one on a movie at all". And as for Favreau - he "had directed one indie movie prior to that... But [it] wasn't a runaway hit or anything."
"They were rolling the dice with this movie and it really paid off," Richter continued. He said that the movie itself paid off because of "the combination of their two sensibilities". "That really made it work because it's funny, but also has a lot of heart."
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"We all have a very soft and warm spot in our hearts for this movie, in our individual hearts," Richter added of Elf.
"Will's done a lot of amazing work... but he says there's nothing like Elf. Elf means more to people than almost anything else he's ever done, and I feel the same way."
"People have gone on from this to be nominated for Oscars, maybe even win... And it still does not match with just what Elf means to people."
After all - who doesn't know the Christmas classic?
