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ADAM McKAY:
“We watched all these interviews with anchormen of the day who were talking about how upset they had been that a woman had come in to work with them. We were laughing so hard at these guys with perfect ties admitting that they were completely freaked out by a woman coming into the news office.”
WILL FERRELL:
“It was such a fun era to look back on. We’ve kind of forgotten now what it was like because, for the most part, things have become more equal in terms of gender roles. But when you look back at the attitudes then, it seems so silly. It’s great to be able to play on the fact that these guys are male chauvinists. We are not glorifying male chauvinists, we are making fun of them.”
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE:
“I love playing Veronica. Having watched a lot of footage from that time in the ‘70s, and watching women as newscasters, I got to have this tape that was behind the scenes. I got to see the dynamic between the men and the women. I loved the idea that these women were in Hell. I love playing a character that has to overcompensate playing with the boys.”
McKAY:
“The one thing that we noticed was, we were looking back at the old anchors before cable, and assuming that they would be more dottering and simple. But a lot of the guys we interviewed were actually pretty smart. The people now, as far as the anchormen go, are more bent on presentation. That surprised us, we didn’t expect that.”
FERRELL:
“Ron thinks he is a lot smarter and more talented than he really is. He has somehow gotten by on this charisma and although he is – let’s face it – a terrible journalist, San Diego loves him. Ron and his news team are literally the life of the party in San Diego. They’re very charismatic; they’re not necessarily good. The news director tells them the network is looking to diversify and they don’t even know what that means.”
APPLEGATE:
“There was a time when women were trying to gain power in the male-dominated fields, and they had a misconception that they needed to hide their femininity and appear more masculine. I felt the key to Veronica’s power was that, while her ambition was fierce, she embraces her femininity as well. That is why I wanted her to look softer than I think most of the anchorwomen at that time did.”
FERRELL:
“It just happens to be set in a time where we could use that male chauvinist thinking to our advantage. The whole era marked the clash of male chauvinism and feminism. It was a time when both issues came to a head, which really served our story. The point was just to have fun while getting to comment on a few things.”
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THE CONCEPT:
