Will Ferrell feels lucky that his 2003 festive classic Elf “continues to resonate” with audiences 20 years later.

The Step Brothers actor, who plays Buddy the Elf in the holiday staple, feels grateful to be involved with a film that “really means so much to so many people” even after 21 years.

“It’s really quite special,” Ferrell told People of Elf’s legacy. “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. I’m so lucky to have a movie like that in my catalogue.”

He continued, “So that’s what’s so great about what I get to do. 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.”

The funnyman noted that Elf isn’t just confined to the festive season, saying, “I have people come to me saying, ‘We watch Elf on July 4th. We just love it.'”

The film, which also stars Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen and James Caan, follows Buddy, a human raised by elves in the North Pole, as he travels to New York City to find his biological father.

The Anchorman star revealed in 2021 that he turned down a big payday for a sequel because it had a similar premise to the original.

“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money,'” Ferrell told The Hollywood Reporter. “And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.'”

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