Will Ferrell reveals why his Battle of Sexes film was cut

Will Ferrell got his licks in Down Under, so to speak, when he visited the Australian Open during the first week of this 2018 season's opening major. Aside from teasing Roger "silky gazelle" Federer in an on-court interview, he also did a side-by-side Q&A with Jim Courier in the press room before entertaining questions from media members.

A reporter asked a timely question about Ferrell's own planned Battle of the Sexes film, a project given a green light a few years ago but that stalled at some point, now no longer highlighted in the actor's IMDB.com profile. You can skip to Ferrell's response around the 9:50 mark.

"Steve Carell beat me to the punch," he said. "As is the case a lot of times in Hollywood, there were two competing projects, and we found out they [Carell and Emma Stone] were already filming it. And plus the only thing I kept bringing up was that I'm 6'3", and Bobby Riggs was 5'8". Is anyone going to have an issue with that? And everybody kept saying, don't worry about it."

Ferrell continued: "I saw that movie on the plane coming down here and I thought they did a great job. Carell is a great pal. I thought it was really interesting, the storyline that they chose to kind of articulate. Yeah, I liked it."

As to whether Ferrell would have relished inhabiting the role of Bobby Riggs, well, of course he would. "I would have loved to," he said. "I think he was a fascinating character. And, you know, a lot of questions, a lot of storylines circulated, you know, that famous match, you know, as the off-the-court story was pretty intriguing I thought, yeah."

Ferrell's film wasn't the only one not to take flight. Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks were previously attached to yet a third Bobby Riggs–versus–Billie Jean King movie that has disappeared into the Los Angeles mist.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.

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