Son of a nutcracker!
Andy Richter has revealed that parts of the beloved Christmas movie “Elf” were filmed in a functioning psychiatric hospital.
Richter, who played Morris, a children’s book author working for the late James Caan’s Walter Hobbs, told Us Weekly in an interview published Tuesday that scenes in the 2003 holiday classic were filmed in “a few empty wings” of an “old mental hospital.”
“That’s where the offices are, the Hobbs house, the mail room; almost all of the interiors in the film are in a psychiatric hospital that was still somewhat functioning,” the 60-year-old actor told the outlet.
“There was still one wing of the hospital that had patients,” he said, revealing that it was Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia, near Vancouver.
Richter explained that production turned to these facilities because studio space was limited at the time, thanks in part to a “big vampire movie” that was also being filmed there.
The “Madagascar” actor also clarified that he “didn’t wander around” the hospital during filming, explaining that he stayed alone between scenes.
“I went to the set. I went to the trailer. I got in the van. I went back to the hotel,” he recalls.
Richter couldn’t say the same about the film’s lead actor, Will Ferrell, who played Buddy the Elf and was hard to miss in his iconic bright green coat, yellow tights, and curly elf shoes.
“Will was all over that place for a month or two, what were people thinking? Patients would look out the window and see this guy in February walking around in an elf costume and maybe recognize, ‘Hey, isn’t that Will Ferrell?'” Richter recalled.
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Conan” alum also revealed that his co-star Zooey Deschanel, who he says he’s known “since she was a teenager,” almost didn’t land the role of Jovie.
“I found out from Zooey that they talked about Selma Blair before she came on board,” Richter said.
“Zooey told us that apparently, at that time, Selma Blair was a big skateboarder, and so maybe they were going to invite Jovie to skateboard in Manhattan, which would have been interesting in December in Manhattan, someone who was skateboarding nearby.”
Meanwhile, Deschanel, 46, revealed on “Call Her Daddy” last December that Katie Holmes was also among those considered for the role.
“When I met Jon Favreau, the director, I walked in and he said, ‘Oh, you don’t need to read it. We just gave it to Katie Holmes,'” the “New Girl” actress told host Alex Cooper at the time.
She went on to explain that Holmes, now 47, “had a scheduling conflict” that ultimately prevented her from taking on the role.
“And then they asked themselves, ‘Who should we have?’ I think the character was kind of meant to be worked on with whoever played her, and they knew I sang because I had a cabaret act, so it worked with the character,” Deschanel said.
Gn entert
