Kristen Wiig: Male Strip Club Trip Before 'Bridesmaids' Filmed Made Us Best Friends
Kristen Wiig is, by all accounts, far different than the outrageous characters she so often plays; instead of loud, oblivious and self-destructive, she is smart, considered and subdued. But in need of some good research and cast mate bonding time ahead of her hit buddy comedy "Bridesmaids," she was willing to go a little crazy.
"We did have an outing one night where [co-writer] Annie [Mumolo] and I rented a party bus and filled it with stuff and went to the male strip club and had a very long night and we all have been best friends ever since," Wiig told an audience at the New York Times' Arts & Leisure Weekend.
Of course, when you get Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper and Melissa McCarthy all together at a strip club, hijinks are certain to occur.
"It's funny. A male strip club is very different than a female strip club. It's guys, theres a voice over, like cowboy robber looking for a fire to warm his hands, and then he comes warm his hands. It's like a show," Wiig laughed. "There was a like a 'Matrix' guy, he had a cable connected to him, its so thick and black, they're not going to hide the fact that he was on a cable, just so he could bend back... the girls, we're going crazy, we were screaming and laughing. We bought Rose a lap dance and we heard her talking about traffic, she was so uncomfortable."
Originally, the experience inspired a whole chunk of the film.
"The whole second act basically was us going to Las, which changed weeks before we started shooting. We went to Vegas and there was a strip club," she remembered. But Judd Apatow, comedy writing expert that he is, decided that the story needed something different.
"It was more like, my character had to do something wrong, my character had to set something up, and he wanted another set piece of my character going crazy," Wiig said of his suggestion. That led to the famed airplane scene, which saw her freak out on Rudolph, Bryne and flight attendants.
"It was terrifying, especially for me as an actor to be honest, to know that I had to do that scene, play drunk and high," she said, though director Paul Feig couldn't stop praising her performance.
To watch their discussion on that scene and so much more, check out the video by clicking here.
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Posted: 01/09/12 10:22 AM ET