“We had a knife pulled on us”
And other insane scenarios comedian Eric André got into while making hidden-camera comedy film BAD TRIP
THERE ARE ONLY four actual actors in Bad Trip. Everyone else is an unsuspecting member of the public. “The real stars of this movie are real people that didn’t even realise they’re in a movie,” says Eric André, who co-wrote the film, and stars in it alongside Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin and Get Out’s Lil Rel Howery. André plays Chris, a loser embarking on a road trip from Florida to New York with his best friend Bud (Howery), in pursuit of an unlikely romance — while being chased by a hardened criminal. There was a loose script, but the narrative was constantly evolving, depending on how the hidden camera antics went. “These people were not only reacting to the pranks, but shaping the plot of the movie,” André says. As he explains, it got pretty wild.
GOT THREATENED WITH A KNIFE
One of the very first pranks filmed almost went horribly wrong. “We did this hidden camera prank where we went into the hood in Atlanta,” recalls André. “Oh, and our penises are stuck together in a Chinese finger trap,” he adds, almost incidentally. (In the narrative of the film, this happens after an accidental night on ecstasy.) Attached to each other by their prosthetic gentials, the pair went to a barber shop to ask for scissors to cut them out. The proprietor was not impressed with what he saw. “This guy pulled a knife on us,” André says. “He later told us he usually brings a gun to work. So, yeah, that could have gone south. We filmed a lot in Georgia, which is an open-carry state.” He laughs. “I was very much in danger.”
PROJECTILE-VOMITED ON STRANGERS
Along the trip, Chris and Bud (Howery) stop off at a country-and-western bar. After “acting like a belligerent, drunk nuisance”, the scene was set for one of the film’s grossest moments. “I climbed behind the bar, where my special-effects guy was hidden. He snaked a puke-hose through to my shirt sleeve.” André then fake-vomited on nearby patrons — but a technical issue almost ruined their only shot. “There was a kink in the hose. Puke wasn’t coming out. Then, finally, it just sprayed everywhere. It was a happy accident.”
CRASHED AND EXPLODED A CAR
The climax of the film sees the two heroes total their car on a public street, in full view of shocked pedestrians. The film’s producers faked a graffiti walking tour of Atlanta, “just to get, like, 20 people in the right place at the right time” to witness the crash, André explains. A stunt driver crashed the car. “Then the driver gets out, we run in, crawl out through the glass, bloodied, concussed. The [walking tour] people are hauled around the corner to see the aftermath.” The genuine concern then shown by his ‘marks’, André says, is the film’s essence. “The movie shows working-class people with the biggest hearts. It’s not cynical. We’re never pranking anybody to ridicule them or humiliate them. It simply shows the Good Samaritan nature of everyday Americans. I want this movie to heal America!”