One was most amused! Bridesmaids star salutes her royal partners in comedy
Ilove a comedy duo. Think Morecambe and Wise, Fry and Laurie, or Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. And the next pairing to make us all fall about laughing? It might well be Mccarthy and Markle…
I interviewed Bridesmaids star Melissa Mccarthy last week and she told me about teaming up with the Duchess of Sussex recently in a comedy video for Meghan’s new venture.
Markle and Mccarthy traded gags on the video call but the budding comic pairing also got a hand from Prince Harry, too.
He appeared in the middle of the video – which was to promote Meghan’s 40x40 project to encourage women to return to the workplace – and Mccarthy told me she could see how much Harry meant to Meghan at that moment.
“You know what was so cute is I could tell when he walked in, because we were talking and she went,‘oh hiii!’ and her whole face lit up,” she said.
“And I thought,‘did Prince
Harry just walk in the room and like her whole face light up?’
“I just thought it was so sweet and genuine, and then he ducked his head in and he was like,‘is it weird if I juggle?’”
It certainly is! The Queen’s grandson helped out by appearing in the video and juggling.
Mccarthy responded to Harry by telling him that yes, it was weird! “I was like,‘it sure is!’,” she laughed.
“Then I said,‘what about standing outside that window?’ and he goes,‘that’s what I was thinking, maybe I’m just standing out there for no reason juggling?’
“And I was like,‘are you weird and funny to boot?’
“I love anyone that will do something weird just for weird’s sake so I tip my hat!”
The video, filmed at the Sussexes California home in Montecito, was released back in August.
Gilmore Girls star Mccarthy was chatting to me alongside The IT Crowd actor Chris O’dowd ahead of the release of
The Starling on Netflix. It’s a bit of a departure for her and Dowd in that it’s not so much a comedy as it is a drama.
Her character Lilly suffers a devastating loss, before a small but feisty bird takes nest beside her quiet home.
The bird taunts and attacks the grief-stricken Lilly (anyone who’s tried to eat chips on Helensburgh seafront in sight of the hungry gulls will sympathise!).
The movie is emotional and very moving.
It’s remarkable because it required Mccarthy to act against an imaginary CGI starling, while director Theodore Melfi would provide a comedy screeching noise.
“I was supposed to be having this serious moment, we were laughing so hard,” said Mccarthy. “Then after a while I was like,‘i can’t believe I’m saying this but Ted will you do the bird?’
“And he would always stare at the monitor very intensely doing this crazy bird sound.”
Sounds like working on breakfast telly!