Behind The Scenes Of How 'Bridesmaids' Became A Comedy Classic

There's a lot of out-of-the-box humor in Bridesmaids, which is one of the reasons the film resonated with a diverse audience, but there are a few moments of comedy gold that were left out of the final cut. For example, Kristen Wiig contemplated sticking her rear out of a car window and urinating in order to make her costar Chris O'Dowd laugh. O'Dowd recalled for Access: 

I’m pretty sure that at some stage Kristen suggested just peeing out the window. They looked into the practicality of it, and she just realized that she didn’t have the right machinery downstairs, you know, the thought was there, which was sweet.

One of the most memorable moments in the film is the food poisoning scene. The women show up to a dress fitting only to find themselves victims of a bad lunch, causing all of them to run to the restroom at the same time. 

The scene wasn't in the original draft of the script, and according to Wiig, she was highly encouraged to add it because people wanted to see women acting more like men. As a result, Wiig wasn't impressed with the scene and she told The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast:

[That] scene in Bridesmaids was not our idea and it was not in the original script, and we didn't love it. It was strongly suggested for us to put that in there. I didn't want to see people sh*tting and puking.

The concept ran afoul of the whole point of the film, which was to feature a women-centered comedy. While the result was effective in the sense that it stuck with audiences long after it was over, the film could have performed just as well without it.

When the movie ends and the credits roll, there is an additional scene involving Melissa McCarthy and her offscreen husband, Ben Falcone, who plays Air Marshall Jon.

The scene depicts a home video of their first intimate encounter. It involves deli meat and other things a bit too salacious for a PG audience. One of those salacious details is the fact that Falcone is wearing his wife's undergarments, a costume choice suggested by director Judd Apatow meant to evoke the couple's raunchy sense of humor.

Jon Hamm, who is traditionally a dramatic actor, was not even included in the credits of Bridesmaids, though he certainly proved he has more range than some might assume. He actually asked not to be credited because didn't want his name to draw away from the comedic intentions of the film. Since Bridesmaids, he has done more comedy work, and he's spoken about his time making the movie fondly.

Hamm and Wiig engage in plenty of hilarious and awkward intimate encounters in the film. Typically, these scenes are just as awkward for the actors as they are for the characters, but everyone has their way of getting through them. In an interview with Playboy Magazine, Hamm described his tactics in filming the intimate scenes:

It's like running in the rain. There's a certain point where you go, F*ck it, I'm already wet. I'm not going to get any less wet, so I might as well just enjoy how this feels. I mean, sure, there's an awkwardness about being in a weird flesh-colored thong, bouncing on top of an actress...

I am not a small human being. I weigh at least 200 pounds, and I'm six-foot-two. And Wiig is a twig; she's a skinny little thing. I told her, Just punch me in the side if I'm hurting you.

It's important for actors to bond with one another so their performances onscreen can mirror their real-life chemistry. It especially helps with comedic timing for movies like Bridesmaids that require a great deal of improv. 

Wiig and writer Annie Mumolo took the rest of the team on a research trip/bonding experience. While filming the scene in Las Vegas, which didn't make the cut, Wiig and Mumolo brought the actors to a male strip club.  

This was intended to be a bachelorette scene similar to those in films like The Hangover, which was the reason it was ultimately cut, so it didn't look like a copycat film. McCarthy described the trip:

For research, we all went to Hollywood Men. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It's a lot of oil, more oil than I've ever seen on bodies, on any beach, and it's a lot of, like, "You know you want this!" And getting weird eye contact and you're like, "I don't! I don't want it so bad!"

Some of the funniest scenes in the film involve Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson's cameos. Bridesmaids was actually Wilson's first feature film, and she has credited the performance with boosting her career, but that's not the only thing the Australian actress got out of filming. 

The pair plays roommates in the film, and they worked so well together they decided to live together in real life when the movie was over. This was at the beginning of Wilson's career, and she was only paid $3,000 for her work on Bridesmaids; it is no wonder she needed a roommate.