Will Ferrell Shows up at NHL Game as a Grumpy, Cigarette-Smoking Buddy the Elf — See the Hilarious Photos

12/30/2024 10:05 AM

The actor famously portrayed the cheerful character in 2003's 'Elf,' which has gone on to become an iconic Christmas movie

• Will Ferrell gave Elf fans a major treat with a rare appearance on Dec. 29 as his character Buddy, this time with a hilariously grumpy demeanor
• The actor and comedian wore Buddy's iconic costume as he took in an L.A. Kings NHL game on Sunday with his family
• Elf celebrated its 20th anniversary last year

He's an angry elf!

Will Ferrell was in rare form at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Dec. 29, as he was spotted in the stands during an NHL game between between the L.A. Kings and Philadelphia Flyers in full Buddy the Elf attire, revisiting his memorable starring role in the 2003 Christmas classic Elf.

But this time, instead of being the happy-go-lucky Buddy fans know and love, the 57-year-old actor and comedian looked hilariously grumpy and pretended to smoke a cigarette as he took in the game with wife Viveca Paulin and their youngest son Axel, 14.

The moment was extra poignant, as in a deleted scene from the movie, Buddy was shown to be quite the pro at ice hockey, beating a group of elves in the sport.

Elf follows Ferrell's Buddy, a human adopted by elves and raised as an elf in the North Pole until one day, when he's an adult, he discovers his true identity — and travels to New York City during the holiday season to locate his unsuspecting biological father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan).

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Speaking with PEOPLE amid the movie's 20th anniversary last year, Mary Steenburgen, who played Walter's wife Emily, said her "first day of work" was filming the scene where Buddy chugs an entire 2-liter of soda, douses his spaghetti in maple syrup and encourages his family to do the same.

"I had not seen even a design or anything about what Will was going to look like," Steenburgen recalled of Ferrell's now-iconic costume. "And then he comes in. ... And I'm tall, but he towers over me, and he comes in in this elf outfit, and then I'm having to eat the spaghetti with maple syrup."

"I just spent the whole day trying to get my lines out without laughing," added the Oscar winner, 71.

According to Steenburgen, she, Caan and even Ferrell would sometimes "ruin a take a little bit from laughing," because "the visual" of Ferrell in costume as Buddy "was constantly funny."

"You didn't really get used to it," she told PEOPLE. "I think we're all used to it more now than any of us were then, because we'd never seen it on posters or on sides of buses or any of that. And so we did tend to just enjoy it so much."

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Related: 11 Fun Facts About Elf You Probably Didn't Know

Despite turning down a sequel to Elf, Ferrell will always have a special place in his heart for the Christmas comedy, telling PEOPLE recently, "It's really quite special."

"I mean, it continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and it continues to kind of entrench itself as kind of a holiday classic for people," explained the Saturday Night Live alum. "I'm so lucky to have a movie like that in my catalog."

Noting that the film "really means so much to so many people," Ferrell continued, "And not only during the holidays, but year-round. I have people come to me saying, 'We watch Elf on July 4th. We just love it.' "

"So that's what's so great about what I get to do," he added. "You never really have an idea of what's going to land with people, and I love the fact that this movie continues to resonate in a way that's pretty incredible."