Not only does Will Ferrell do his own stunts in Land of the Lost, but so does Matt Lauer. Ferrell plays a disgraced scientist humiliated on The Today Show. In an epilogue, Ferrell's character gets his revenge and Lauer just can't take it.

"The ending scene where he tackles me, he said, 'You know what? Let's do one more take,'" Ferrell said. "Then he just did that, which was great, and I'm trying not to laugh because I was so surprised, that he's like tackling me. That was brilliant, that was great."

Director Brad Silberling used the real take because there was no recreating that magic. "When he leapt up, the expression you see on Will's face is completely legitimate because he didn't know it was going to happen," Silberling said. "None of us did. That was Lauer being really smart."

Ferrell continued, explaining how Lauer fooled the veteran comedian. "He totally faked us out," Ferrell said. "He's like, 'I think I messed up that line,' and the next thing I know he just tackled me. So it was really fun to kind of see him really take advantage of that."

Image © Universal Pictures

"We were of course channeling some other troublesome guests he's had in the last couple years," Silberling added. "[We] thought, 'Let him just deal with it and it'll be really funny.' Lauer was incredible."

Even when Ferrell tried to trip him up, Lauer stayed in character, as himself. "As you see in the movie, he's so at ease at snapping into being himself," Ferrell said. "It sounds like a silly thing to say 'just do what you normally do,' [but] a lot of times people get stiff and they start to act and he was so real. When I did little things like I keep showing my book, he's like, 'Stop it, okay?' He would just throw those things."

At least they never called Lauer glib. "He did at one point in an earlier draft of the scene," Silberling admitted. "Then we thought, okay, that's a little too on the nose, but yes, he did."

Land of the Lost opens Friday.

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Story/Interview by Fred Topel

Starpulse contributing writer

(Starpulse in Hollywood): Every week, Hollywood's biggest stars are meeting in the hot spots and Starpulse is there.