Flickering Myth’s Scott Davis sat down with Sean Anders to talk about Daddy’s Home, out now on Blu-Ray and DVD…
Note: This interview was conducted before the sequel to Daddy’s Home was announced…
SD: Congratulations on the success of the film – you went up against Star Wars and put up a very good fight. Were you nervous at all opening around the same time considering its huge opening?
SA: I wouldn’t say nervous, I would say more like terrified – I was kind of driving everybody crazy leading up to the opening just because I knew Star Wars was going to be huge, I was excited for Star Wars. So we just had no idea how we were going to bid into that crazy market but it worked out great and we’re obviously thrilled.
Are you surprised at the huge success the film had at the box office?
Well I mean when we were testing the movie we saw how audiences were reacting to it and people were really walking out of the theatre very happy so we hoped that that would translate into big box office, that people would be speaking well of the film and seeing it with their families. So I mean I wouldn’t say that I was shocked but I would say that I was very pleasantly surprised, very happy.
How did you get involved in the film and what was the inspiration for the film? Did you draw on your own experiences as a father?
Yeah well yeah I did a little bit, I’ve got kids and my kids are a godsend. I’m not a part of a blended family but the fact that my sister adopted means that I’ve always thought about, at some point, the kids are probably going to meet their biological mother or father and that is going to be sort of tricky and an interesting time to be the one whose raising the kids and then meet other people who haven’t been around who also have that connection. So when I read the original draft of the script I connected with it on that level and I just thought it was a really fun area for comedy that weirdly hasn’t been done before so that was exciting too.
After writing the script, did you approach Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg about re-teaming again or was it something that came from Will’s end as he was involved as a producer?
Yeah Will was already involved when we got involved and we had wanted to work with Will really from the beginning of our career. He was the number one person that we’d been chasing for a long time in comedy. Then we sat down and started talking about the character and the thing that was the most important to John and I, John’s my writing partner, was that we wanted to we wanted the Dusty character to just be larger than life and be the kind of guy that any guy would look at and maybe go into a slightly insecure tailspin. We started talking about different people and Will said what about Mark Wahlberg and everyone in the room, Adam McKay was in the room, we were all there and everybody went crazy and you know I wasn’t sure. I knew that sometimes actors like to reteam and sometimes they don’t. And Will brought up Wahlberg so clearly he was interested in repeating and we all thought that was the best idea anybody could have and we just hoped that Mark would do it and luck would have it he was interested.
Originally published May 4, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
