Michelle Obama Reveals Her Favorite Movie, and It's a Surprising Throwback
Michelle Obama Reveals Her Favorite Movie, and It's a Surprising Throwback
Virginia ChamleeWed, July 1, 2026 at 8:10 PM UTC
0
Michelle ObamaCredit: Arturo Holmes/Getty -
Michelle Obama revealed Elf is her favorite movie and discussed it on her podcast with star Will Ferrell
Ferrell shared how leaving Saturday Night Live led to his role as Buddy in the 2003 Christmas classic
Obama said she re-watches Elf often, calling it hilarious, sweet, and her go-to movie for feeling better
Michelle Obama is sharing her favorite movie — and it's surprising.
During the latest episode of her IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson podcast, 62-year-old Obama welcomed Will Ferrell, the star of the film.
In a post shared to Instagram, the former first lady wrote, "When I tell people Elf is my favorite movie of all time, I’m not joking! So for this week’s @imopodcasts, I was especially excited to sit down with Buddy the Elf himself, the one and only Will Ferrell."
Michelle Obama, Will FerrellCredit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty;Alan Markfield/New Line Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Ferrell starred as Buddy in the 2003 Christmas classic, which focused on a human adopted by elves and raised as an elf in the North Pole until one day, as an adult, discovering his true identity. Buddy then travels to New York City during the holiday season to locate his unsuspecting biological father, Walter Hobbs (played by James Caan).
In the podcast, Obama described the film as "my favorite movie on the planet of all time, the only movie that I watch again and again and again."
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Advertisement
On the pod, Ferrell said taking on the role of Buddy was one of the reasons he left Saturday Night Live in 2002.
"I left, I'd been there seven years and you know, you always, you know you have to leave at some point," Ferrell said, adding: "And it just felt like I'd had enough momentum, but it's not like I had a stack of scripts waiting for me.
He continued: "But we were developing this one movie about a human who was raised by elves at the North Pole, and it was an amazing concept, but it needed a lot of work. And so we kind of rewrote the whole thing."
He added: "But it's such an interesting thing to have become what it's become... I had no idea that we had like lightning in a bottle, but we did."
Obama then noted, again, that it is her favorite movie, saying, "It is my favorite movie of all time. I mean, it really is. I don't re-watch movies, but it is hilarious every other second. And it is so sweet. And it definitely does all the things. It presses all the buttons."
She added: "So whenever I want to feel better — no, literally — and then I make other people watch it with me so that I can say, 'Wait, here it comes.' "
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
