“I’m sorry. I won’t apologize. I’m not confident which end that came out of.” - Megan
Not only is Bridesmaids one of the funniest movies of all-time, but it also revolutionized the comedy genre as it showed that women can be just as raunchy and filthy as men, and people will pay to see it. Sure, Bridesmaids wasn’t the first ever female-centric comedy movie starring an amazing ensemble cast, but it did help open doors for future comedy films with leading female casts in a way that others hadn’t. On top of that, it broke records, got nominated for multiple awards and helped launch and kick-start the careers of multiple actresses! Add to that a rare comedic turn—at the time—for Jon Hamm, and this movie earned the right to stand on top of the comedy mountain.
It’s insane to look back and see how stacked the cast for the movie was and how today it would be nearly impossible to get all of these actors together again based solely on the fact that a studio couldn’t afford all of them. It’s been seven years since Bridesmaids was released in theatres so why not look back at this Oscar-nominated comedy and learn some facts about this sleeper hit!
Bridesmaids Facts
31. Room for One More
In a case of life imitating art, Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas decided that if being roommates in the movie was good enough for their characters, it was good enough for them, too, and they actually moved in together in real life.
30. Score One for the Irish!
Originally, Officer Nathan Rhodes was written as an American and Chris O’Dowd was set to play him with an American accent. However, once the producers heard his natural speaking voice, they couldn’t resist the Irish accent and told O’Dowd to keep it.
29. Subtitles, Please
There was a lot of improvising going on during the filming of Bridesmaids but one of the more interesting moments came when Rose Byrne decided to improvise a part of her engagement party speech in Thai. The crazy thing is, she doesn’t even speak the language! She just said a bunch of random words, and when the producers found out, they made her learn a few sentences in Thai for the movie.
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28. That’s Mr. Hamm to You
Although their characters never cross paths in the movie, Jon Hamm and Ellie Kemper go way back. Hamm was a high school drama teacher at John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri and Kemper was one of his students.
27. Making Sure It’s Perfect
There was five years between the time the first word was typed for the script and an audience saw the film, as co-writer Annie Mumolo claims they pitched the idea for the movie in 2006 and the movie finally hit theatres in 2011.
26. Funniest Reunion Ever
The actors were given a lot of free range to improvise throughout the filming of the movie and it makes sense considering six of the people involved in the movie got their start in the same improvisational comedy troupe. At one point in time, McCarthy, Wiig, Mumolo, Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ben Falcone were all in The Groundlings improvisational comedy troupe and performed together.
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25. Didn’t Make the Cut Part One
Paul Rudd filmed a scene for the movie that was ultimately cut, but found its way into the deleted scenes on the DVD. He plays a guy who goes on a blind date with Annie and they have a great time until he shows his true colors after an incident at a skating rink. It’s five minutes long, but it’s worth watching to hear his character’s definition of the word “tw*t.”
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24. Small Details With Big Meanings
It was revealed in the DVD commentary that Annie wears a bra when she has sex with Ted but doesn’t when she has sex with Rhodes because Wiig and Feig wanted to show that Annie feels comfortable around Rhodes and is able to open up to him emotionally in a way that she can’t with Ted.
23. It’s a Movie About Nothing
The original script and story for Bridesmaids didn’t involve a wedding, and was more like an episode of Seinfeld in that it was about nothing. Wiig stated that all she and Mumolo wanted to do was write a movie that they could act in with their friends and that would essentially just feature an all-female cast.
22. Hand Model
For the baking scenes, any time there is a close up of Annie’s hands, they’re not actually Wiig’s hands. She was reportedly busy when they decided to film the B roll so a stand-in was used instead.
21. Award-Worthy
Bridesmaids was nominated for two Academy Awards, with Wiig and Mumolo getting the nod for Best Original Screenplay—losing to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris—and Melissa McCarthy for Best Supporting Actress—losing to Octavia Spencer for The Help. This is also the only movie Apatow has been a part of that was nominated for an Oscar.
20. The Numbers Don’t Lie
Bridesmaids was an absolute powerhouse when it was released, earning praise from critics and audiences alike and being certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 90% score. Also, aside from the award recognition, Bridesmaids remains, to this day, the highest grossing R-rated female-centric comedy of all-time domestically, beating out Sex and the City. However, it plays second fiddle to that movie when it comes to worldwide gross.
19. Write What You Know
The engagement party scene is based on the real-life experience co-writer Mumolo had during her friend’s engagement party. Essentially, the party was at a beautiful, expensive country club and she showed up in a beat down car with side mirrors held together with duct tape, which perfectly encapsulated where they were in their respective lives, just like Annie and Lillian.
18. Baby on Board
From the time it took to sell Bridesmaids to Universal Studios to wrapping production on the movie, Mumolo went through two pregnancies! She was even eight months pregnant during filming, where she had to constantly be on set in case there were any rewrites needed. She wasn’t alone in the process, though, as Maya Rudolph was pregnant throughout filming too, and wore a lot of large belts to distract from the baby bump and cover it up.
17. New Home Owners
Multiple buildings and houses that appeared in the movie were featured before in other movies and TV shows. Fans of the Batman television show who watched Bridesmaids might have noticed that Wayne Manor was used for the venue that the engagement party was thrown at. Then the establishing shot of Ted’s house was the same one used in the show Beverly Hills, 90210 for Kelly Taylor’s house, and the establishing shot for the house used for the bridal shower was the same one from the movie Scary Movie 2.
16. Famous Daughter
Peter Frampton’s daughter—Mia Rose Frampton—appears in the movie as the girl who gets in an argument with Annie at her job and causes her to get fired. This was Mia Rose’s first ever movie role. Her comedic timing was pretty good, so probably not the last, either.
15. First Time for Everything
Although Wiig had enjoyed a long, successful career on Saturday Night Live and appeared in several movies during and after that run, Bridesmaids was her first movie as the lead. Mumolo also considers it her first job, as she co-wrote the script and is credited as Nervous Woman on Plane.
14. Pay Day
Rebel Wilson may be a big name and big time player in Hollywood today, but she was a relative unknown—outside of Australia—when she was cast in a small role for Bridesmaids. She was paid $3,000 for her work, which seems rather low, but considering the movie catapulted her career, it all worked out in the long run.
13. One and Done
It’s impossible to completely rule anything out in Hollywood, as they will remake/reboot/redo anything they can get their hands on. With that being said, don’t expect a Bridesmaids sequel any time soon, if ever. Wiig and director Paul Feig have both stated that this was a singular story about a character that is a mess and finally gets her life together, so a sequel wouldn’t work. At the end of the day, it’s all up to Wiig, but she seems firm on her stance.
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12. Wrong Genre
Hamm’s role in Bridesmaids was uncredited because he was known more for his dramatic roles at the time and he was worried that the film would be seen as more of a drama and not a comedy if audiences knew he was in it.
11. Career High
To this day, Bridesmaids stands tall as Apatow’s highest grossing movie domestically and worldwide of all-time. It is also McCarthy’s highest grossing movie of all-time domestically but second worldwide behind The Hangover Part III—bet you forgot she was in that one.
10. The Hardest Part
Apatow was against calling the movie Bridesmaids because he didn’t want audiences to think it was just another wedding movie, as it is about much more than that. Wiig also admitted that it was hard coming up with a title, and at one point it was even going to be called Maid of Honor but another film came out first with that name, so they settled with Bridesmaids.
9. Who Wore It Best
None of the dresses that Lillian or the bridesmaids wear in the promotional photos for the movie are seen on screen.
8. Carbon Copy
McCarthy wanted to base her character Megan off of reality TV star Guy Fieri, but she didn’t just want to mimic his personality, she wanted to actually be Fieri. She envisioned Megan wearing the same shirt and hat that Fieri always wears and would constantly have sunglasses on the back of her head. She even pitched the idea of having short, white spiked hair, but was told, “You can’t actually be Guy Fieri.” It’s hard to say if that would have made the movie better or if it would’ve been too distracting.
7. Something Wild
The most memorable scene in the movie—when everyone gets food poisoning—was never in the shooting script. It was added later on during production when Apatow and Feig encouraged Wiig and Mumolo to put some wild physical comedy in the movie. They pitched the idea that the restaurant the characters go to before the fitting isn’t the best spot and from that, the diarrhea and puking scene was created.
6. Finding a Way in
A few notable actresses auditioned for roles in the movie but didn’t get it or ended up getting a completely different role. Mindy Kaling and Byrne auditioned for the part of Lillian before it went to Rudolph. Kaling never making it into the movie at all, but Byrne landed the role of Helen. Both Rebel Wilson and Busy Phillips auditioned for Megan but it went to McCarthy, and Wilson was then cast as Annie’s roommate Brynn.
5. In Memory of
Bridesmaids was the last movie that actress Jill Clayburgh—who played Annie’s mom—appeared in, as she passed away a year before the movie was released. Producer Judd Apatow admitted later on that they took out some of the dirtier jokes Clayburgh said because he thought, “That can’t be the last thing she ever says in a film.”
4. Fun & Games
To help build their on-screen chemistry and work on their improv skills between takes, O’Dowd and Kristen Wiig would play the game “Would you rather.” They didn’t share too many details on the questions, but O’Dowd did reveal that his favorite question that Wiig asked him was, “Would you rather have a nipple growing on the end of your nose or a tooth growing out of your cheek?” Gun to my head, I’d go with the nipple.
3. Leaving Las Vegas
The original script saw the women actually make it to Las Vegas and have a bachelorette party, however, the scenes were removed after the release of The Hangover, as producer Apatow thought that movie was the best iteration of Vegas seen on screen. Therefore, Annie’s freak out on the plane was written as a way to prevent the girls from ever going to Vegas in the first place.
2. They Did Their Homework
The Vegas sequence never ended up making the final cut of the movie but if it had it would have been apparent that the women did their research before filming it. To “prepare” for the bachelorette scenes, the cast ended up going to a male strip club called Hollywood Men. McCarthy described it as, “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen” and everyone chipped in to buy Byrne a lap dance.
1. Didn’t Make the Cut Part Two
As opposed to Rudd’s scene that was filmed but never put in the finished movie, there were two other distinct scenes that were written but ultimately never filmed. One was a musical number, which sounds fun but tame, and the other was a bit more extreme and not exactly in line with the tone of the movie. It saw a few characters believing they found Lillian dead but it turns out to be a random person. They then abandon the body. A little dark, no?
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
