The 60-year-old actor tells PEOPLE the risk “really paid off”

NEED TO KNOW

• Andy Richter credits Will Ferrell and Jon Favreau’s blend of humor and heart for Elf‘s enduring appeal
• Richter explains that Ferrell had never headlined a movie when the 2003 holiday comedy was greenlit
• Richter and writer Aaron Karo’s new book features behind-the-scenes photos and interviews with the cast and filmmakers

Elf is a beloved holiday classic now, but it could’ve easily gone in a different direction.

Andy Richter reflects on how hard it was to get the movie made while talking to PEOPLE about his new book, Elf: Unwrapped, which offers behind-the-scenes photos and interviews with the cast and filmmakers of the beloved 2003 holiday comedy.

“It was a risky movie, and nobody thinks about that because it’s now a classic, but at the time there was nobody that was aching to make a movie with Will Ferrell as the star or with Jon Favreau as the director, for that matter,” Richter explains. “Will had never been number one on a movie at all, and Jon had directed one indie movie prior to that, that was well received, but wasn’t a runaway hit or anything.”

“They were rolling the dice with this movie and it really paid off,” Richter, 60, adds.

Before Elf, Ferrell had made a name for himself on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2002, while Favreau was coming off the 2001 crime comedy, Made. Not only were the people involved seen as a bit green, but the outlandish, fish-out-of-water premise was also risky.

Still, the Late Night with Conan O’Brien alum says the movie’s success can be attributed to “the combination of their two sensibilities, which we go into in the book, that really made it work because it’s funny, but also has a lot of heart.”

“A lot of times you get one or the other, and I think that it’s really about as well-balanced a movie as you’re ever going to find,” Richter shares. 

The 2003 movie centered on Buddy the Elf (Ferrell), who was raised in the North Pole by Santa and his elves before traveling to New York City to meet his real father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan). In addition to Ferrell, Richter and Caan, the movie starred Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart, Peter Dinklage and Daniel Tay.

Even decades later, Richter says, “We all have a very soft and warm spot in our hearts for this movie, in our individual hearts.” 

“Will’s done a lot of amazing work and a lot of very successful work, but he says there’s nothing like Elf. Elf means more to people than almost anything else he’s ever done, and I feel the same way,” the actor shares. “I worked with Conan for 30 years, and second to that, this is the thing that people are so just in love with. It just brings so much joy to people. And it’s the same for everybody that we talk to.”

“People have gone on [from] this to be nominated for Oscars, maybe even win…and it still does not match with just what Elf means to people and what that means to you as somebody who’s trying to make things that matter to people,” Richter adds.

Although dramatic work often leads to awards, Richter notes that the “beautiful” thing about comedy is that the end product “is the physical manifestation of happiness, laughter, happiness and joy.”

“That’s the end product of what we’re all trying to do, and when you can do something that matters to people, and it matters to their mothers and fathers, it matters to their sisters, it matters to their children, it matters to their grandchildren, and it matters to them year after year after year, I don’t know what more you can hope for,” he shares.

“Awards are great, but they don’t compare to making a difference in people’s lives. We’re not curing a disease, but we’re making people happy, and that’s pretty important work,” Richter adds.

Richter, alongside writer Aaron Karo, revisited the holiday classic for his new book, Elf: Unwrapped. The book features never-before-seen photos and secrets from the set, as well as interviews and anecdotes from Ferrell, Deschanel, director Favreau, and many others, telling the story of how the movie about an unlikely human raised by elves became such a beloved classic. 

Elf: Unwrapped is now available for purchase wherever books are sold.

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