A worse boss than Michael Scott? Sounds impossible, but Will Ferrell is going to give it his best worst shot.
Ferrell begins his four episode temp job replacing friend Steve Carell as Dunder Mifflin Scranton boss on April 14th. He'll play DeAngelo Vickers, a man obsessed with the American southwest, and as he told the NY Times, an even less competent manager than the departing Michael Scott.
"From that first episode that I'm in, they created, in the style of 'The Office,' this eccentric, bizarre character," Ferrell said. "Me and Michael Scott, we hit it off immediately. We're birds of the same feather. And then, in a very Michael Scott way, he slowly starts to resent me because everyone's just kissing up to me. Slowly, you see in my character that I'm maybe not as good as Michael Scott and am pretty much a weirdo. Everyone's looking at each other, going, 'Oh, no. We had it so good.' [laughs] 'We didn't even know it. We knew we had a friend in Michael Scott, but we didn't realize, in his backwards way, what a good manager he was.'"
If it's possible to be more socially awkward than Michael Scott, that's also something Ferrell is going to try to do. It begins with his big speech, he told the Times.
"He loves the desert Southwest. When Steve introduces me to the staff, my first speech to the group is, "Let me tell you a little bit about myself,'" Ferrell reveals. "And I basically go through a list of information that is neither helpful to them nor that interesting. It's just this bizarre list, with a cadence of, like, 'What else, what else?' 'Ummm. I've never ridden a motorcycle. I've never cared to. That's just me.' Like, O.K., how's that going to help us?"
Interestingly, the show will take four episodes to build up the Vickers character, but he won't be taking over full time. Since Carell announced his exit last June, the show has yet to reveal who will be sitting in the manager's chair on a permanent basis -- though they've put together quite the list for fans' speculation.
The season finale will be a star studded affair with up to five potential full time replacements for Carell. Series creator and British boss Ricky Gervais and NBC go-to guy Will Arnett were announced in March as guest stars for the episode; "Everyone Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano, "Boston Legal" actor James Spader and British funnywoman Catherine Tate were revealed as finale guest stars this week, as well.
Realistically, given Arnett's new NBC pilot, Gervais' other commitments and Romano's TNT series "Men of a Certain Age," only Spader and Tate are real candidates to take over, though the show's producers have said that all five stand a chance for a full time job in Scranton.
For more from Ferrell, click over to the NY Times.
NBC has released two teasers from Ferrell's "Office" debut; watch them below.
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