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:
Yeah I did that in my starving actor days. I was Santa. Chris Kattan was my elf, from Saturday Night Live and we did Night at the Roxbury together. It was fun because we would walk into J.Crew, and I’d be like [in Santa voice], ‘Hellooo J.Crew. Merry Christmas! How are the button-downs doing this year?’ They got so used to it they’d be like, ‘Hi Santa.’ Like folding shirts… like they were so over us.
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.
But the worst and best moment was we encountered these two kids [who] came up to say ‘Hi’ and it was right outside of the cosmetic store Origins. They had this little sculpture of like a coyote in front of the store. We’re saying hello to these kids and we look up and there’s a parent with them. It’s Kevin Costner with the hat, he’s being very incognito. I’m like, ‘Hello, you’ve been a very good little boy and girl?’ ‘Hi Santa, hi.’ Kevin Costner, he’s just kind of looking at us and they’re crawling on this coyote. And I’m like, ‘Oh do you like crawling on that little coyote sculpture?’ And then Chris can’t help himself and goes, ‘It looks like you’re dancing. In fact, it looks like you’re dancing with wolves.’ And Kevin Costner goes [mean mugs], ‘Let’s go. Let’s go.’ Like, don’t blow my cover.
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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