Elf star Mark Acheson has revealed that the now-viral scene between him and the movie’s lead, Will Ferrell, nearly got cut.
Acheson, now 67, appears midway through the 2003 family comedy when Ferrell’s Buddy is sent down to the mailroom of his father’s (James Caan) office building.
Credited simply as “the mailroom guy,” he meets Buddy, who cheerily asks him how he ended up there. “Work release,” Acheson’s character responds before pouring a flask of alcohol into his coffee mug.
In a new interview, Acheson remembered receiving a call from his agent about doing the one-liner with Ferrell for the film.
“I called my agent and he said, ‘Listen, they would like you to come and do one line with Will Ferrell. Would you like to do it?’ And I said, yeah, I’d be happy to do that. I was only supposed to say ‘work release’ and that was the end of it,” Acheson told People.
However, director Jon Favreau decided to have Acheson and Ferrell, now 57, improvise a full scene.
During the mailroom scene, Buddy naively assumes the alcohol flask is a bottle of syrup and asks to try some. After Acheson obliges, the two end up drunk and lying together in a mail cart.
The two continue to chat, as Acheson tells Buddy that he needs to get out of the flow because he’s 26 and he’s “got nothing to show for it.”
“You’re young, you’re so young,” Buddy replies.
Acheson remembered: “The producers wanted to axe the whole scene because of that. I think, ‘Who is gonna believe this guy is 26?’ I mean, seriously. I believe I was 46 at the time and an older, 46 even at that. Because I never looked young in my life.”
Instead, Favreau “fought” for the scene. “He said that’s the joke, that’s the funny part, right?” Acheson recounted, adding that despite the producers wanting to cut the entire scene, Favreau “kept me in.”
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“And thank God for me because it changed my career quite a bit,” he said.
Acheson’s line about being 26 years old has since become a popular sound on TikTok, with one user jokingly asking: “Do you ever have a Monday where you wake up feeling like the 26-year-old mail worker from Elf? Because that’s how I’m feeling right now.”
“POV you’re watching Elf at 25 and realizing there’s no way this man in the mailroom is 26 years old,” another quipped.
Ferrell led the Christmas classic as Buddy, an adult man who, after being raised in the North Pole by elves, thinks he’s one too. However, after realizing that he doesn’t fit in, he embarks on an adventure to find his real father.
Elf is streaming on Hulu and Max this Christmas. You can also rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Google Play Movies