PR.com (Allison Kugel): How was ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday?

Christopher McDonald: One of the biggest thrills! You go up into this big boardroom which used to be the place where they did it all. It’s beautiful. The furniture there is pre-dating 1900. I meet all these people, I take some pictures. It’s a half an hour before the end of the day and I walk through and all these people are yelling, “Shooter!” All the traders, they recognize me from Happy Gilmore. There were waves of people and they were pretty jazzed because at that time, I think we were up by 320. I did a quick interview and came down with the main man there, and as soon as I walked back on there, they went up 40 points, and it was crazy! I think we got to 392 or something.

PR.com: Do they bring a celebrity down there to get everybody jazzed up?

Christopher McDonald: I guess they don’t do this all the time, but they knew I had a following with these guys on the floor. They’re all young bucks and they’re all big fans of some of the movies I did. I was shaking hands, taking pictures and signing autographs. The girls who were taking me around, the PR [people] were like, “Dude, you have a lot of fans!” (Laughs.) And I was like, “Wow, yeah!” Especially on the floor (the floor of the New York Stock Exchange) they’re all superheroes and that’s why we wanted to do it; a PR gamut to get the Superhero Movie logo and The Hourglass (McDonald’s character in the movie), this metal cape, fantastic thing. I got up there and I felt like a high schooler. I was like, “Oh my God! This is insane. This is set aside for heads of state and heads of corporations.” So, I felt quite honored.

PR.com: Did it give a little boost to the stock market?

Christopher McDonald: I think it did, yeah. I’m taking full credit (laughs).

PR.com: Tell me what it was like to wear your costume in Superhero Movie?

Christopher McDonald: It was one of the reasons I wanted to do the movie, because I always wanted to play a superhero. Then when I saw the diagram for [the costume] I was like “Wow!” I wasn’t supposed to play that part. I was offered the part of the crazy newspaper guy. But I went in to meet the director (Craig Mazin) and we had such a great laugh and I said “By the way, who’s playing Lou Landers, the villain? That’s a great part.” And he goes, “Hmmm, take it home and come back tomorrow.” Long story short, we made it work and it was great.

click to read interview with Christopher McDonald