'He was made for that role' How Purdue basketball's Caleb Furst became Buddy the Elf

WEST LAFAYETTE – Sitting in a Hyatt Regency hotel room in downtown Portland, Ore., during the Phil Knight Legacy over Thanksgiving weekend, Caleb Furst and Zach Edey started watching the popular Christmas movie, “Elf.”

Unbeknownst to Edey, he was sitting next to Purdue’s version of Elf.

And it’s the perfect role for the 6-foot-10 sophomore forward for Coach Matt Painter’s program. Just ask Painter. Just ask Edey. Just ask Furst. Just ask more of his teammates, who clearly see the resemblance between Furst and actor Will Ferrell, who plays Buddy the Elf in the movie.

“I wasn’t surprised,” junior Ethan Morton said. “He’s a Will Ferrell-esque person.”

Furst was promoted as Buddy the Elf as part of the basketball program’s annual food drive, which is usually centered around movie themes, including “Ghostbusters,” “Rocky,” “Star Wars” and “Top Gun.”

This year, it was “Elf” – starring Furst along with Painter, athletic director Mike Bobinski and the World’s Largest Drum – and the reaction surpassed all expectations, not only locally but across the country.

The Rocky video tied to the food drive had plenty of engagement. But Furst and “Elf” blew the top off, as the videos generated more than a million views. Donations from the event brought in around 14,000 pounds – which equates to about 11,000 meals – for Food Finders of Lafayette.

“In the end, the food drive was crazy successful,” said Chris Peludat, who heads the department’s marketing and fan experience operations. “That’s what we were trying to do and have some fun along the way. We never anticipated the reaction, but it was a lot of fun to do.”

PERFECT FIT

Furst just doesn’t have the physical comparisons. His mannerisms and body language complete the whole package and make Furst a dead ringer for Buddy.

“People said he did a great job acting; I don’t know if he was acting,” Painter said. “Once he feels comfortable around you, he’s got a really good personality, and a very outgoing personality to say the least.

“I think it’s cool they do things like that in our community, but it was one of those things that was perfect. He was made for that role.”

How did the idea to cast Furst in the role develop?

It started more than a year ago when Chris Johnson, an associate director of creative services and a senior graphic designer, floated the idea as a possible theme to Peludat.

“Last year when we were looking for an idea, we kicked around Elf at the time,” Peludat said. “We didn’t do it and opted for ‘Ghostbusters.’ This year, when we started talking about it again, Chris brought up ‘Elf.’ We liked it. This year, everything fit.”

The first decision was to create a poster highlighting Furst as Buddy to promote the food drive, which has been a successful community service project.

But Peludat and his group looked at taking the promotion another step by adding videos. Furst’s personality fit after the Fort Wayne native was involved in other promotional videos during the offseason poking fun at his teammates.

THREE OUTFITS

Stephanie Franke, an associate director of marketing for digital advertising, narrowed the list down to 10-15 scenes from the movie to use. And then Chris Forman, who oversees communications for the men’s basketball program, pitched the idea to Furst.

“People have called me Buddy before as a joke and I thought he was joking,” Furst said. “But that sounded like fun.”

One important hurdle remained. Could Purdue find a replica of Ferrell’s costume from the movie that would fit Furst?

“Amazon is a great thing,” Peludat said. “We ordered multiple outfits. A couple of double X’s here for this and that kind of thing. There wasn’t one size that fit him. We ordered three costumes and between those we had everything that fit.”

Kim Harris, who works as a project and event coordinator for Peludat, made the shoe coverings for Furst’s size 14 feet.  

“It’s not Zach (who wears size 20), but it’s not a run-of-the-mill elf shoe,” Peludat said.

With Furst on board, Painter was a willing participant. Bobinski also signed up. Filming of the videos started in October around campus, including Furst hopping through a crosswalk.

“I probably looked like an idiot out there in early October. It wasn’t even Halloween yet and I was filming it,” Furst said.

When possible, Peludat’s team put a Purdue spin on scenes. Instead of the World’s Best Coffee, they substituted the World’s Largest Drum.

“We wanted to have some fun with it and tried to make it unique to us,” Peludat said. “I think we were pretty successful doing it.”

‘OH, THAT’S FUN TO SAY’

Although Furst playing the role of Buddy wasn’t a well-kept secret, Purdue tried to keep the videos under wraps as much as possible. Furst’s teammates didn’t officially find out until the promotional videos started showing up on social media before the Boilermakers played host to Hofstra.

“He definitely fits it. That’s how he is. If anyone was going to be Elf on our team, it definitely would be Caleb,” Edey said. “He’s always like that. In the ads, he’s a little crazy and that’s only a little bit of an exaggeration. He’s very energetic, he’s very bouncy. He has that personality.”

Two scenes featured Furst and Painter. Another one had Furst passing Bobinski in the hallway and after learning his name, “Oh, that’s fun to say,” he repeated it over and over again. Furst’s parents were eager to collect the posters and hang them in the house as part of the family’s holiday decorations.

“They thought it was hilarious,” Furst said about his parents. “My mom wanted to frame one and put one in the house every Christmas.”

And his teammates? 

“They’ll come up to me and say, ‘Bo-bin-ski’ in my face. I probably deserve that,” Furst said.

HIGH BAR

For those looking for bloopers and outtakes, there aren’t any. Nearly all the scenes were filmed in one take but were shot from multiple angles to create more options.

“We shot everything a couple of different times just to get some takes but realistically there wasn’t any messing up lines and things you would typically see on a blooper,” Peludat said.

What does Purdue do for an encore next season? Maybe another “Elf”-themed event since this one was so successful? There’s plenty of material remaining and Furst already has the yellow leotards.

“We talked after it hit the street, and said, ‘Oh, man we’ve kind of set the bar high now,’ ” Peludat said. “There are more opportunities with some parts of the movie that we could still do and have a lot of fun with and potentially incorporate some of his teammates in. People expect the same level of engagement.

“With these things, you don’t set out to get a million views or whatever the numbers are. The timing was perfect, it’s a movie everybody loves, and it was well received. Maybe we’ll do another version next year.”