THE CATALINA WINE MIXER FROM STEP BROTHERS
POW! WE GET INTO STEP BROTHERS’ MOST RIDICULOUS SCENE WITH DIRECTOR AND CO-WRITER ADAM MCKAY
F YOU’RE TRYING to gauge the impact of the Catalina Wine Mixer — the fictional corporate event that provides the backdrop for the triumphant climax of Adam Mckay and Will Ferrell’s Step Brothers — this is all you need to know: it’s no longer a fictional event. It’s the fuckin’ Catalina Wine Mixer, and it’s as real as a drum solo performed in the middle of an opera song. There can be no greater tribute to the strangely euphoric sequence, in which Ferrell’s Brennan Huff and John C. Reilly’s Dale Doback, estranged stepbrothers and butts of a never-ending joke, step up to the plate (and the mic, and the drumkit), and rock the hell out of it. Empire caught up with Mckay for a deep dive into the scene.
Where did the idea come from?
We knew it was going to be a joke where we overblow some minor event and treat it like it’s the biggest deal ever. I knew we wanted some kind of bullshit corporate event. Right away, we were like, “Helicopter leasing?” It sounds like something where people would take themselves very seriously. And Ferrell, who grew up around Los Angeles, was like, “What about a wine mixer out in Catalina?” I thought, “Oh my God, that sounds perfect.”
Did you shoot in Catalina?
We scouted it and the little town is so tiny, there was no footprint for a film crew. So we ended up shooting it at Trump’s golf club. We thought he was just a joke. We had no idea there was this darker thing that was going to happen. If you look at the sequence, in the background you can see the real Catalina Island in the distance.
It’s an unexpectedly moving scene, even including Richard Jenkins’ [as Dale’s father, Robert] speech about dinosaurs. That was totally improvised. We were filming this exchange between Reilly and Jenkins and Ferrell and I was like, “It needs something here.” I was talking to Richard and said, “It has to be something you did when you were a kid that was idiotic. What if you pretended to be a dinosaur?” We both kind of wrote it together. We only did two takes. At the premiere, Jenkins said, “Please tell me you didn’t put in that dinosaur monologue.” Oh no, it’s in there.
Did you know this sequence would have an emotional punch?
We did not. The thing that really affected us was when Ferrell’s [screen] brother, Adam Scott, flashes back to him and Brennan as kids. The first time we saw that in the cutting room we were like, “That’s kind of beautiful.” And the other thing was we didn’t know that Will and John singing that song would be oddly moving in a fucked-up way. When we test-screened the movie, we had some people tearing up.
We thought they were kidding. I mean, it’s not the end of Terms Of Endearment, but people were being moved by it.
Was it always going to be those guys doing the song ‘Por ti volare’ for real?
We wrote that [scene] in Ferrell’s guesthouse. It was written to be that song. Hal Willner, our music supervisor, taught me to always do it live. If you can do it live, always do it live. And I knew Ferrell could sing. His dad’s a professional musician. We also knew that song was a little bit of a stretch for him. But when he did it, he rose to the challenge. That’s all them, that’s all live. That’s John on the drums. We brought in a crazy high-level drummer for the fills. But there’s a bunch of it where it’s John.
Why that track?
When we were writing it, we thought, “You’ve seen these guys lose themselves. We should bring pure beauty into the movie,” but we wanted it to be a little bit cheesy. We went through track after track and spent half a day going through music. We finally found that track and it was perfect.
“It’s the fuckin’ Catalina Wine Mixer” has passed into the movie quote hall of fame. Where did it come from?
From Ferrell and I just laughing about making a big deal out of the Catalina Wine Mixer. We kept elevating the mythology of it over and over again. In the script it was only two people saying, “It’s the fuckin’ Catalina Wine Mixer.” When it came time to shoot we were like, “We got to get everyone saying it.”
You’re no stranger to having your movies quoted back at you. That must be up there... The best quote-back I’ve ever experienced was when the New Orleans Saints had just won the Super Bowl, and one of the players goes, “It’s the fuckin’ Catalina Wine Mixer,” and all the players cheered.
And now it’s a real event.
I love it. What a crazy, specific inside-joke the Catalina Wine Mixer is — and to see it actually become real, and people get the joke of what we were doing, and to see it grow and grow, is very gratifying.
Have you thought about going?
Reilly and I talked about it two years ago. If they keep doing it... In fact, I’m gonna say it now: if they do it again next year, I’m gonna go.
That’s on the record.
I have to go. It’s incredible that it still goes on. You should come join. It’ll probably be insane.