Anchorman 2 star Will Ferrell surprised by film's popularity in Australia Newsreader extraordinaire, Ron Burgundy joins The Project to discuss his incredible career. Not so loud ... Will Ferrell says the character of Ron Burgundy is "very fun to play because I am far from overly confident, personally." WILL FERRELL is accustomed to disappointing people. No one expects a plumber to replace the tap washers if he comes over for drinks. But when a comedian sits down at the dinner table, people pretty much take it as a given that he is going to make them laugh. "I've made peace with myself that I am continually letting people down in face-to-face meetings," says the 45-year-old father of three, in Sydney for the Australian premiere of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. I know I will have encounters where we'll say hello and we'll take a picture, and they are walking away going 'Not that funny in person'. I know that's the truth. It's lucky for Ferrell, then, that he never saw humour as a means of making friends or influencing people. "The needy acceptance thing never drove my comedy," he says. I was just fascinated by it. Even as a kid, I loved watching the science or the arithmetic of a really gifted comedian. I wouldn't laugh at something, I would just say, oh, that's funny. That's funny. Like Ben Stiller, who was in Sydney the same week for the premiere of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and his Anchorman 2 co-star Steve Carell, returning as one-of-a-kind weatherman Brick Tamland, Ferrell is quite happy to take a back seat to his larger-than-life comedy creations. Creations such as Ron Burgundy, a man who exists at the very epicentre of his own lurid universe. "It's very fun to play because I am far from overly confident, personally," says Ferrell of his best-loved character, a man so sensationally self-absorbed that he walks out on his wife (Christina Applegate) at the beginning of Anchorman 2 because she gets the job he assumed was earmarked for him. I wouldn't say I lack confidence, either, but I mean I would never have predicted any of this would happen to me. Winning team ... Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Steve Carell return in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Ferrell isn't the only one to have been surprised by his remarkably fluid transformation from jobbing comedian to A-list Hollywood star. DreamWorks certainly didn't expect much from the first Anchorman when it released the film in 2004. When you think back to the first one, it was barely released internationally. They just didn't think it would play. Ferrell says. The writer-actor-producer regards this international tour, which kicked off in Australia on November 24 with a red-carpet premiere attended by Ferrell, Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner and director Adam McKay, as something of a vindication. "It's a bit of a victory lap for the first one, which we never got to take because it was such a slow build," he says. Surprise hit ... The success of the Anchorman series in Australia has taken Will Ferrell by surprise. The original Anchorman took exactly half of Elf's $173 million at the box office. Its total earnings were $60 million less than Talladega Nights, Ferrell's second highest-grossing live action comedy. But over time, the legendary Ron Burgundy has certainly lived up to his title - as the star-studded line-up in Anchorman 2 attests. Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Jim Carrey, Tina Fey and Kirsten Dunst are some of the actors who feature in a very long list of credits. Ferrell says Australian fans played a major part in the newsreader's return. In the newsroom ... Will Ferrell says the journalistic satire of the first Anchorman film was accidental. "Every time I came down here, I would get two questions about the current movie I was promoting and then the next eight questions would be about Anchorman, and are you going to do a sequel?" he recalls. I would go back to (director) Adam (McKay) and say it's crazy the following Anchorman has in Australia. It kind of chipped away at our initial contempt for sequels. According to Ferrell, the journalistic satire of the first film was almost accidental. Everyone immediately thought it was a send-up of news, but we saw it more as a battle of the sexes. We thought of a newsroom and what it was like the first time a woman entered it. It was more about petulant behaviour. The commentary on local news was somewhat of a byproduct. Tightrope of fear ... Will Ferrell enjoys the adrenalin rush that comes with performing. The newsroom satire in Anchorman 2, which stars Josh Lawson as a brash, Australian media mogul, on the other hand, is much more pointed. Obviously, we set out to be hopefully funny again and irreverent and out there, but this one was definitely pointed at having a hard look at the value of 24-hour news and whether or not there is any. After almost a decade of being lobbied by fans for a sequel, Ferrell and director Adam McKay have no idea whether or not the finished project will live up to heightened expectations. There are no guarantees in comedy, but Ferrell can live with that. I always love when you do an awards show or a talk show and the producer is like, how do you feel? Is this going to work? And I am like, I have no idea. It could bomb. It might be horrible. You might have five minutes of silence. Anyone who truly has the heart of a comedian is always on this tightrope of fear. It's about educated guesses. You have to be OK with that. You have to find it exhilarating. Luckily, I am at a place now, knock on wood, where it usually goes well. And when it doesn't there is almost a perverse joy when you walk off stage and you go, that was terrible! And you just start laughing. Given that Anchorman 2 is yet to even hit the cinemas, Ferrell describes talk of another sequel as somewhat premature. On the birth of our third boy, the nurse is like, are you going to try for a girl now? I am thinking, can't we just check this guy first? Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opens in cinemas on December 19