'Anchorman' director recalls 'near accident' with Will Ferrell in which he hanged himself: 'It was really scary'

• Ferrell did a bit for "Anchorman 2" where he hanged himself, Adam McKay said.
• "There was actual tension on the rope, but then it gave way and Will was OK," he said.

Director Adam McKay recalled a really close call Will Ferrell had on the set of "Anchorman 2."

In the sequel to the popular 2004 comedy, McKay said there was a bit they did where Ferrell's Ron Burgundy character tried to hang himself. It led to a "near accident," as McKay described it to The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview.

"For a half a second, the rig didn't operate properly and there was actual tension on the rope, but then it gave way and Will was OK," McKay said.

"Thank God no one was hurt," he continued. "We were sick about it for two days."

In the same interview, McKay, who directed the upcoming Netflix release "Don't Look Up," described how shooting the bear pit scene in the first "Anchorman" movie led to him vowing never to have his actors work with live animals again when one of the bears did a bluff charge.

The memories came to McKay when the topic of set safety came up during his Hollywood Reporter interview, in the wake of the fatal "Rust" shooting.

Back in October, a gun that Alec Baldwin was holding discharged on set and killed the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the film's director, Joel Souza.

"That's my greatest single fear as a producer and a director," McKay said of the shooting.

"We've used blanks on our set, including on 'Don't Look Up,' and everything is quadruple-checked," McKay continued. "No one is ever in front of that pointed gun, and the chamber is triple-checked. When I heard what happened, I was like, 'How could that possibly have happened?' That set sounded sloppy and dangerous."

Baldwin recently said in an interview with ABC News that he never pulled the trigger. An investigation is ongoing.