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Gentlemen, start your responding!

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly recently sat down with People magazine and discussed their new movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Among other thing.

Q: Did you two hang out together before making Talladega Nights?

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REILLY: We knew each other but did not like each other.

FERRELL: We kept seeing each other in public. People would go, “You know who that guy is?” I would go, “Yeah, I know who he is. I do not like him.”

FERRELL: Actually, we met through Molly Shannon, at a brunch.

Q: John, did you give Will NASCAR wisdom gained from acting in the Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder?

REILLY: Yes. I gave him a copy of the movie and said, “Avoid all performances in this as a guidepost, and you’re gonna be in good shape.”

FERRELL: People think I’m basing my character on Nicole Kidman’s in Days of Thunder. Which is a lie.

Q: You’ve both appeared in musicals. If you were both finalists on American Idol, who would win?

FERRELL: It’s all about song choice. Because on an experience and technical level, John would be a little bit ahead of me. I might come at him with a little Jesus Christ Superstar.

REILLY: I might come with Styx: “Too Much Time on My Hands.” A Chicago band.

FERRELL: And speaking of Chicago, I might come with (singing in falsetto), “If you leave me now, you’ll take away the very heart of me.”

BOTH: (singing) “Oooh no, baby, please don’t go.”

Q: Who helped shape your hayseed personalities for the film?

REILLY: I prefer to think of them as southern gentlemen. We had a dialect coach at the beginning, but she quickly realized we would not be good students and fled the set.

Q: In the movie, Ricky Bobby‘s motto is “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” What’s yours?

FERRELL: I live by “Earnin’ and burnin’.” Meaning, I like to make money and spend it before I even have it. That’s the way I live my life.

REILLY: “If you got it, flaunt it. Even if you don’t got it, still flaunt it.”