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Will Ferrell shared that Italians mistakenly called him \u201cThe Zoolander\u201d despite his role as Mugatu in the 2001 film<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Ferrell noted that Italians have a particular love for the 2001 satirical fashion comedy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
In a new podcast, he also revealed that French audiences especially love his 2004 film, Anchorman<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Will Ferrell<\/a> says he was once mistaken for \u201cThe Zoolander\u201d during a trip to Italy.<\/p>\n Speaking on a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused <\/em>podcast, Ferrell, 59, told host Josh Horowitz: \u201cThe couple times I\u2019ve been to Italy, there has been \u2014 I remember, in a cafe once and this woman was like, \u2018There he is, the Zoolander.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, well, no, I\u2019m not the Zoolander. I\u2019m Mugatu,\u2019 [and she was like] \u2018Oh, you know what I mean.\u2019 That movie in particular … the Italians love it,\u201d Ferrell added.<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE\u2019s <\/strong>\u00a0free daily newsletter<\/strong><\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n Will Ferrell in \u2018Zoolander\u2019Credit: Paramount Pictures\/courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Ferrell did appear in the 2001 movie, a satirical take on the fashion industry, but not as the eponymous main character, male model character Derek Zoolander (played by Ben Stiller<\/a>, who also directed the film).<\/p>\n Ferrell instead starred as the villainous mogul Jacobim Mugatu, who attempts to brainwash Derek into assassinating the prime minister of Malaysia. At the film unfolds, Derek unites with his male model rival, Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson<\/a>), and falls in love with a journalist named Matilda Jeffries (played by Stiller\u2019s real-life wife, Christine Taylor<\/a>).<\/p>\n The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Elsewhere in the Happy Sad Confused <\/em>podcast, Ferrell said that another of his films \u2014 2004\u2019s Anchorman<\/em> \u2014 is \u201cput on a pedestal\u201d by the French.<\/p>\n \u201cThe foreign lens on some of this stuff is always interesting [in terms of] what they gravitate toward,\u201d Ferrell said.<\/p>\n In 2016, Ferrell and the other principal cast members of Zoolander<\/em> starred in a sequel \u2014 Zoolander 2<\/em><\/a> \u2014 <\/em>which was both a commercial and critical failure.<\/p>\n Stiller, 60, spoke about the sequel on David Duchovny<\/a>\u2019s podcast, Fail Better<\/em><\/a>, saying, \u201cI thought everybody wanted this. And then it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow, I must have really f—ed this up. Everybody didn\u2019t go to it. And it\u2019s gotten these horrible reviews<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cIt really freaked me out because I was like, \u2018I didn\u2019t know was that bad?\u2019\u2019 What scared me the most on that one was l\u2019m losing what I think what\u2019s funny, the questioning yourself … on Zoolander 2<\/em>, it was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n