It might sound like the first few moments of a Saturday Night Live sketch, but it’s true: Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon met at a restaurant. 

Ferrell was a member of Los Angeles’ legendary Groundlings comedy troupe in the early 1990s, and Shannon was waiting tables nearby. “I worked as a waitress across the street,” Shannon tells Tudum. “Will came over to my restaurant and that's how we met.”

“We were in the same comedy circles in LA at that time,” Ferrell adds. “There were tons of cabaret shows and open-mic situations. That's where Molly was doing Mary Katherine Gallagher [her beloved SNL character] for the first time.”

From these humble beginnings, the pair would go on to become a comedy duo for the ages, first as cast members on SNL and later in films including A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Three decades into their collaborations, they’re together again in The Hawk, a new comedy series created by and starring Ferrell.

Ferrell (Will & Harper, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) plays Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, a flashy professional golfer making a second attempt at the Grand Slam he failed to capture 20 years ago. Shannon (Other People, Wet Hot American Summer) co-stars as his long-suffering, estranged wife, Stacy, who’s trying to move on to bigger and better things than playing second fiddle to the Hawk. Lonnie, however, has other ideas. 

Of course, Ferrell and Shannon’s offscreen relationship is much warmer than the one between Lonnie and Stacy. “Molly said yes before we even had scripts,” Ferrell says. “I just said, ‘We’re working on this thing. It may take a while. Would you want to play my wife who it’s not really clear if we’re still married and you’re just yelling at me all the time?’ She was like, ‘Yeah.’”

Read on for our interview with Ferrell and Shannon, and tee up The Hawk, now streaming on Netflix. 

Will, this is your first lead role in a TV series. Why did this feel like the right project for that?

Will Ferrell: I was really interested in doing an extended series because you get to spend much longer with the characters. You get to flesh out story arcs that you don't necessarily get to do in a 90-minute movie. I was always searching for and wondering what that would be. There was something about golf where it felt like such a funny, interesting game: People who play it hate it as much as they love it, and it’s fascinating that people stick with it. These professional players are living in misery most of the time, because very few of them win; if you win three times a year, that’s a great year. 

There’s something about that that was really interesting, to take a peek behind the curtain in a comedic way: how that affects interpersonal relationships, the competitive side, the family side… [I thought] that could really be fertile ground for a big ensemble comedy.

Molly, it’s so fun to watch you chew up the scenery as Stacy. What attracted you to this role? 

Molly Shannon: Working with Will. I mean, [he’s] just the greatest. I feel so lucky and fortunate; Will is just a giant superstar and I couldn’t be happier for him. So it’s like a dream.

The two of you have been collaborating for decades. What do you like about each other as a scene partner? How do you elevate each other?

Shannon: I would say Will and I both take it very seriously. Of course we have fun, and we laugh, and we can be silly, but I think we’re both serious actors where we're thinking about it in a technical way. And I think we have that in common. 

And Will also is such an amazing writer that he can look and go, “Yeah, we could lose that.” He’s so quick and can just edit the whole scene in 30 seconds. It’s like the most perfect note. So I have full trust in whatever he wants to do. 

Ferrell: I think it’s different to be a comedic actor than to be a comedian. And I think that’s the approach. Even on SNL, it could be the silliest sketch, [but] we’re playing it as if we’re serious people thinking this is really happening. It sounds counterintuitive. The laugh is almost secondary, and then the context makes it funny. It’s just what Molly was saying, that mutual trust, approaching the work the same way. We know we’re going to be on the same page.

Will, you’ve played so many iconic characters in comedy: Ron Burgundy, Ricky Bobby, the list goes on. What makes Lonnie the perfect next installment in that lineage?

Ferrell: What is so fun about this process is I could be in my car and have a thought and text the writers room and be like, “You know what? I think Lonnie should only drink white wine.” And then we’re doing the wardrobe fitting: “Should Lonnie still wear a Livestrong wristband? Lonnie was a big Lance Armstrong fan and thinks he was wrongly accused.” You build this color palette. What I ended up really liking about the character was the process of getting there.

Are there aspects of Lonnie that you relate to?

Ferrell: I’m a father, but we’re different types of fathers. He’s not very good. I also wanted to play a narcissist because I think we’re living in a time of extreme narcissism. I think all the characters have their own version of that in a way, and I think it’s fun to comment on that.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.