Will Ferrell Used To Work As A Mall Santa With Chris Kattan And Has A Hilarious Story About Running Into Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner wasn't exactly pleased to meet Buddy the Elf.
These days, I’d assume people would be extremely excited if they happened to run into the man behind Buddy the Elf in public. However, before Will Ferrell starred in one of the most popular Christmas movies, he was a mall Santa, and not everyone was excited to run into him and his mall elf Chris Kattan, especially Kevin Costner.
While on Hot Ones, Ferrell was asked to run through the highlights and challenges of being a mall Santa during the early days of his acting career. He started out by explaining the hijinks he and Kattan would get into while on the clock, saying:
The actor who is now considered one of the best SNL alums then explained that no one was monitoring their breaks, so they would take a ten-minute break every 15 minutes. He also made sure to note that their time in J. Crew messing with the employees was on the clock.
Ferrell then went on to tell a story about the time he and Kattan ran into Kevin Costner – you know the Oscar winner known for Dances with Wolves and the hit drama Yellowstone. While the comedians went on to become part of one of the best SNL casts of all time, let’s just say Costner was not excitedly screaming “Santa, I know him!” instead, he was trying to get away from the comedians.
Ferrell then said he asked Kattan why he did that, and his SNL co-star responded saying he couldn’t help himself. It makes sense that the two would poke fun at the Yellowstone star. Coming up at the Groundlings together, as Ferrell revealed in an AMA, and eventually working with celebrities on SNL, the immediate instinct to joke around with Costner when they saw him feels on par.
Even though the Christmas season has passed, it’s always fun to hear these hilarious stories from SNL cast members before they became A-list celebrities. Now that Ferrell and Kattan are beloved comedians, I’d be curious to see if Costner would be a bit more willing to joke around with them, or if he’d maintain the attitude he had all those years ago.
Since this happened many, many years ago, all three actors involved have gone on to bigger and better work. If you are looking to watch one of Ferrell’s newest movies, he released another holiday movie called Spirited last year which can be watched with an Apple TV+ subscription, and Kattan has lots of fun projects in the works. As for Costner, you can catch him in the second half of Yellowstone’s fifth season later on the 2023 TV schedule, and as for right now, you can catch up on his hit drama with a Paramount+ subscription.
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Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.