BRIDESMAIDS
Something old, something spew…
A FITTING START
After lunch in a Brazilian restaurant, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) and her bridesmaids go dress shopping at the ultra-chic Belle en Blanc. To keep the set pristine, everyone wore soft booties, including a dismayed Paul Feig:
“[I said] ‘I’m the director, I can walk in there with my dirty feet!’” he jokes.
DRESSED TO ILL
A radiant Lillian emerges in a bridal gown. As gasps turn to tummy gurgles, farts and retches, Helen (Rose Byrne) realises that everyone’s got food poisoning except her (she had salad). The whole salon scene took four days to film – the final day, adds Feig, was “dedicated to bathroom and vomit”.
THROWING IT OUT THERE
And so it begins, as Rita (Wendi McLendonCovey) spews into the loo and Megan (Melissa McCarthy) squats on the sink (“No Megan, NO!”… “Look away!”). McLendon-Covey was required to projectile vomit three times. “I really represented,” she says with pride. The vom was oatmeal and food colouring, FYI.
BAD HAIR DAY
And here comes Becca (Ellie Kemper), who chunders into Rita’s hair. (In a deleted scene, Becca is sick again, this time on salon owner Whitney’s wedding photo). The set remained ‘hot’, meaning nothing was cleaned until the very end. “We kept coming [in], and there was that filthy toilet,” says McLendon-Covey.
COMEDY PORES
A sweat-soaked Annie (co-writer Kristen Wiig) insists she’s fine; in fact, she fancies a snack; rival Helen (Rose Byrne) feeds her sugared almonds. Wiig’s ‘sweat’ came from an Evian bottle. “[Whenever] Rose talked I would spray it on me… I thought it’d be funny if every time it cuts back to me I’m wetter!”
HITTING THE STREETS
Lillian runs out of the salon, unintentionally relieving herself in the street (“It’s happening… it happened”). Originally, the script called for her to poo so violently it knocks her off her feet: “‘Like a gunshot,’ it said,” recalls an incredulous Rudolph. Feig: “Which makes no sense whatsoever!” ML