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Great Odin's Raven! Santa Monica's Broad Stage was packed with almost every Anchorman actor conceivable at last night's 826LA charity event. The Channel 4 News Team showed up to do a live reading of the original beloved film, which they hadn't read together in nine years.
Conan O'Brien hosted the event, with cast members Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and David Koechner in tow. Even Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph joined in for some extra parts, and an epic musical performance was delivered by Jack Black, who belted an angry song about not being cast in the sequel.
The event was the brainchild of director Judd Apatow, who sits on the advisory board of 826LA—a nonprofit that offers free writing and tutoring programs for children.
"During rehearsals we were like, 'maybe we should just read Anchorman out loud and do it as a benefit,' and oddly everyone was available," Apatow told LAist. "Even Danny Trejo was available."
Trejo, who donned a cap emblazoned with his Machete Kills film logo, had pressed LAist to question Apatow as to why he didn't get the chance to reprise his role as a bartender in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Apatow rebutted, "Apparently, Jack Black has a whole song tonight about why he wasn’t in the second one! Danny got too big between the first and second one."
Meanwhile, Carell looked back fondly at returning to the sequel as Brick "I Love Lamp" Tamland. "I think one of my favorite moments was when we shot the teaser trailer and it was the first time we had been in these characters in 9 years," he said. "It was a reunion. It was just exciting to see everyone else in their characters and to feel that feeling that we had so many years before."
Armisen summed up why Anchorman is special in all our hearts, telling us, "It was an entryway into Adam McKay and Will’s world and Judd Apatow," he said. "It was sort of a door to a first album. That was the perfect hit song."
The cast of Anchorman just did a live reading to support @826LA. Thanks, @JuddApatow. That escalated quickly. pic.twitter.com/xMQeDVXDvU
— Chris Sacca 🇺🇸 (@sacca) November 22, 2013
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