Elf star says Jon Favreau saved hilarious improvised scene from being cut — now it’s gone viral
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Mark Acheson, who starred as the ‘mailroom guy,’ was only supposed to have two words of dialogue. Elf star Mark Acheson has revealed that the now-viral scene between him and the movie’s lead, Will Ferrell, nearly got cut. Acheson, now 67, appears midway through the 2003 family comedy when Ferrell’s Buddy is sent down to the mailroom of his father’s (James Caan) office building.
Credited simply as “the mailroom guy,” he meets Buddy, who cheerily asks him how he ended up there. “Work release,” Acheson’s character responds before pouring a flask of alcohol into his coffee mug. In a new interview, Acheson remembered receiving a call from his agent about doing the one-liner with Ferrell for the film.
However, director Jon Favreau decided to have Acheson and Ferrell, now 57, improvise a full scene. During the mailroom scene, Buddy naively assumes the alcohol flask is a bottle of syrup and asks to try some. After Acheson obliges, the two end up drunk and lying together in a mail cart.
The two continue to chat, as Acheson tells Buddy that he needs to get out of the flow because he’s 26 and he’s “got nothing to show for it.”. “You’re young, you’re so young,” Buddy replies. Acheson remembered: “The producers wanted to axe the whole scene because of that. I think, ‘Who is gonna believe this guy is 26?’ I mean, seriously. I believe I was 46 at the time and an older, 46 even at that. Because I never looked young in my life.”.
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