Christina Applegate is spilling the tea on one of her most famous roles.
During a Wednesday, March 4, appearance on The View, the Emmy-winning actress revealed that she was initially made a low offer to star in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, but lead actor Will Ferrell stepped in.
“When they came in with the initial offer, it was a little offensive,” Applegate, 54, who played Veronica Corningstone in the 2004 comedy, said.
“I said, ‘I know my worth. I can’t do that,’” she continued.
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Thankfully, Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay stepped in to ensure that the movie didn’t lose Applegate as its lead actress.
“They wanted me bad enough and they said, ‘Well, we’re going to chip in.’ Thank God they did,” she said.
Applegate recalled filming Anchorman as one of the “best experiences of my entire life” because she learned improvisational comedy.
“It was such a lesson. I had never done improv before,” she shared. “Learning from that group of dudes was just, like … that is the masterclass that people pay for. Steve Carell taught it, and Adam McKay developed an entire new way of doing it with his group. To get in there and have that happen was absolutely magical. It was invaluable to me and my career.”
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Applegate reminisced, “I was so scared every day of my life when Adam McKay would be like, ‘Now just do whatever you feel like doing.’ I’m just like, ‘I want to say what you wrote. That would be nice. I don’t want to make stuff up!’ Now, it does come from this other part of my brain … it works.”
Applegate reprised her role as Veronica Corningstone in the 2013 sequel Anchorman: The Legend Continues.
The Dead to Me actress recently wrote about her time on the Anchorman set in her new memoir, You With the Sad Eyes. In the book, she also shared how she once ditched Brad Pitt.
Applegate wrote that she invited Pitt, 62, to be her date to the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. At the time, she felt “powerful and sure of myself” and ended up leaving the ceremony with Canadian singer Sebastian Bach rather than with Pitt.
“I hate to put it like this, but Brad back then was still making his way as an actor, and he wasn’t yet THE Brad Pitt, the man of so many people’s dreams,” Applegate wrote. “We didn’t talk for many years after that.”
You With the Sad Eyes is out now.
