That was all part and parcel of it: everyone trying to act like everything is normal. During the writing process, did you consider how women are socialized to say nothing when they don't feel well? It was very funny, but ultimately we felt we should keep it to real life, and let something absolutely insane happen because of her actions.ĮSQ: Part of what makes the scene so comical is how long everyone tries to hide their distress. At one point, Matt Damon is chopping wood with his shirt off, and he says, "Run into my muscles." She runs to him. It was funny and silly, but we all felt like it wasn’t quite telling the story of this rivalry between Annie and Helen, fighting over the soul of Lillian and for possession of their best friend.ĮSQ: What was Annie’s vision of her life in the expensive dress? Then it was a very funny scene in the dressing room where Annie puts on this dress, and it's so beautiful and expensive that she has a romance novel fantasy about what her life would be like in that dress. It was always Annie and Helen going there with the other bridesmaids, with Annie trying to steer them toward a cheap dress and Helen trying to steer them toward an expensive dress. Paul Feig: The scene was always set in the dress shop, but it wasn't always about food poisoning. Is it true that originally, there was another scene in place? Feig revealed how the scene almost didn't happen, how he personally concocted the prop vomit, and how Bridesmaids forever changed the landscape for women in comedy.Įsquire: I’m told that the food poisoning sequence wasn’t part of the original script. Rudolph can't escape it in 2017, she revealed that Starbucks baristas have written quotes from the scene on her to-go cups, saying on Ellen, "I'll always be the lady who took a shit in the street." To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Bridesmaids, Esquire spoke with Feig, who brought us behind the curtain of the scene no one can forget. In the years since, the scene has reached pop culture ubiquity.
Suzanne Hanover/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock "You're really doing it, aren't you? You're shitting in the street," Annie observes. Graphic gastrointestinal distress ensues, culminating in a highly-quoted moment when a mortified Lilian, hustling across the street in search of a bathroom, sinks to her knees in oncoming traffic. In the iconic scene, following lunch at a dodgy Brazilian steakhouse of Annie's choosing, the bridal party rolls into an upscale boutique to shop for bridesmaid dresses, only for their meal to come back to haunt them. Lilian's bridal party includes naive newlywed Becca (Ellie Kemper), randy, long-married Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and kooky, foul-mouthed Megan (Melissa McCarthy), but it's the wealthy, beautiful Helen (Rose Byrne) with whom Annie comes into heated conflict and competition. Wiig, who co-wrote the script with Annie Mumolo, starred in the film as Annie, a sad sack thirty-something who comes unglued during the run-up to the wedding of her lifelong best friend, Lilian (Maya Rudolph). Without Bridesmaids blowing open the door on the bathroom humor boys' club, proving once and for all to film studios that women can tackle the subject with humor and heart, the outpouring of smart, female-centric comedies that followed may never have seen the light of day. Though we remember the scene for its gut-busting laughs, we must also remember how it changed the comedy landscape for women.
Moviegoers fell hard for Bridesmaids, turning out in droves to the tune of a $288 million global box office gross, with the food poisoning sequence going down in the annals of comedy as an endlessly quoted masterpiece. Ten years ago, Bridesmaids launched to rapturous acclaim and rapturous laughter, but it was this one scene that took home the wedding cake. Would audiences go for six minutes of all-star comediennes gurgling, gagging, and thoroughly defiling a marble bathroom? Wiig powered through the nerves, spritzing Evian on her face to mimic cold sweats, and the rest is comedy history. "Is this going to be gross and off-putting?" Originally not in the movie, then a source of endless recalibration during post-production, the no-holds-barred scene was a leap of faith for everyone involved. "We were all worried," director Paul Feig admits. Before cameras began to roll on Bridesmaids' iconic food poisoning scene, Kristen Wiig was nervous.