Saturday Night Live veteran Will Ferrell has had a tremendous career in the industry. Whether he is improving most of his dialogue, or he is assembling the perfect cast for a hit comedy, the man has proven time and time again that he can do it all and make it look easy.
Eastbound & Down was a show that wisely featured Ferrell in a guest role, and Ferrell's time on the show was legendary. What most people do not know about Ferrell's character was that the actor based him on a wrestling legend.
Let's take a closer look at Will Ferrell and the character in question.
Will Ferrell Is A Comedy Legend
When it comes to comedy work on the big and small screen, few performers in modern history have accomplished as much as Will Ferrell has. At the height of his career, he was an unstoppable force at the box office, and he has even taken to producing some hit projects, as well.
Saturday Night Live definitely showed people that Ferrell had a wealth of potential, but he would need to get the right opportunities on the big screen to show that he could be a star. Thankfully, this would take place during the 2000s, and once he reached the top, he began hauling in a fortune while cementing his legacy.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, "At the peak of his career in the early to late 2000s, Will was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. He consistently earned $20 million per movie."
The man was a powerhouse on the big screen, and it will be tough for anyone to come close to matching what he achieved.
As great as his film work was, Ferrell has also made some waves on the small screen, notably in a guest role on Eastbound & Down.
He Played Ashley Schaeffer On 'Eastbound & Down'
He was not a primary player on the show, but there is no denying that Will Ferrell's presence added a lot of value to Eastbound & Down when he was introduced on the show. People had no idea what to expect from the character Ashley Schaeffer, but his physical appearance alone clued audiences into the fact that he was going to be hilarious in each scene.
Of course, once Ferrell finally started interacting with Danny McBride on the show, hilarity ensued. These two are fantastic when working off of one another, and their characters were simply made to oppose each other. From their first meeting on, Kenny Powers and Ashley Schaeffer are locked into a feud that lasts quite some time.
Overall, Ferrell would not appear in too many episodes of the show, but his episodes are some of the most memorable in the show's history. Schaeffer wound up becoming one of the show's funniest characters in the long run.
Fans who really want to sink their teeth into something hilarious should find the outtakes from Will Ferrell's time on the show.
Now that the series has reached an end, a number of interesting facts have emerged, including the fact that Will Ferrell based Ashley Schaeffer on one of the greatest athletes of all time.
He Based The Character's Appearance On Ric Flair
So, which legendary athlete did Will Ferrell base Ashley Schaeffer from Eastbound & Down on? Turns out, it was none other than Ric Flair, who is one of the most famous professional wrestlers in history.
For the unfamiliar, Ric Flair is an infamous figure in the world of wrestling, and few people ever came close to matching his skills in the ring and his skills on the microphone. He was everything that professional wrestling looks for, and he totally changed the game for the wrestler who came after him. As such, Ferrell utilized the legend as a source of inspiration when gearing up to play Ashley Schaeffer.
After a fact like this gets pointed out, it becomes easy to take one look at Will Ferrell's character and see the physical resemblance to a younger Ric Flair. While this might not have been very obvious to some, other people were quick to notice the similarities, and this made the character of Ashley Schaeffer even funnier than he already was.
At this point, Eastbound & Down is a show that people will have to go back and re-watch, and if they have not done so, we highly recommend it. As great as it is without him, the show really does hit another level when Ashley Schaeffer enters the fold.
