While doing my thing HBO was replaying the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s recent and well deserved induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of fame. I was once again blown away by their drummer Chad Smith’s likeness to Will Ferrell. It’s something I’ve noticed on a number of occasions but as Smith gave his speech I just couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by how much he resembles Ferrell.
I’m certainly not the first to notice as there is a Facebook page about the similarities and even an old article I dug up in which Chad commented on what everybody was noticing. The interview was with Rolling Stone and he talked about the confusion in identities sometimes:
“I certainly do. I don’t think that I look much like him, but people really seem to think that’s who I am, especially at airports and things. People who come up to me are drummers or fans of the band. I’ll be somewhere and someone will have me take a picture or something. Someone else will see that, and they’ll come over and say, ‘Will Ferrell?’ I have to say ‘No,’ and they’ll be like, ‘Bullsh!t, man – I just saw you taking pictures with that man. Why do you have to be like that?’
“I’m just like, ‘Dude, I’m telling you, I’m not Will Ferrell.’ A lot of the time it’s easier to just agree with them and take the picture and they go away. It’s weird to look like someone so much that people aren’t even asking if you’re the guy. They just come up saying, ‘I loved you in that movie’.”
In a perfectly funny episode if you’re a really amazing drummer of a legendary rock band who just so happens to look like Will Ferrell Chad shared the one time he came face to face with his doppelganger:
“I was in the food line after the movie and I was getting chicken skewers and shrimp cocktail or whatever. I’m filling up my plate and he’s filling up his plate, and there’s this guy between us. I’m looking at Will and thinking, ‘People really think I look like him? I don’t f***ing look like that.’ So the guy between us splits and there’s nobody between us, and Will turns round. He looks me up and down and says, ‘You’re very handsome,’ and walks away. Totally deadpan. I was like, ‘You’re funny. You’re funny’.”
One more look:
At a movie food line, I thought I found my blood…
