This month marks the 10-year anniversary of Bridesmaids, so why don’t we reminisce for a moment? Kristen Wiig’s Oscar-nominated comedy is still just as hilarious as it was when it was released thanks to its ensemble cast of a wedding party, including Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Rose Byrne. And how can we forget one memorable secret weapon the movie had: Rebel Wilson, who nearly played a very different role.
The Aussie actress nabbed the role a year before her major breakout in 2012’s Pitch Perfect as “Fat Amy.” She played one of two odd roommates to Kristen Wiig’s Annie. But recently she divulged the role she nearly ended up playing. In her words:
Weirdly, so my character wasn’t supposed to exist in the movie, I’d auditioned for Melissa McCarthy’s character and was like the second choice for that role. And I guess they liked my audition that they added me to the film essentially. So there was never supposed to be two roommates, only one.
Rebel Wilson shared the roommate role with Matt Lucas, as they played Kristen Wiig’s annoying sibling roommates, who were a bit too close for comfort. Wilson adds a lot of hilarious moments in the movie, but she originally had her eye on one of the bridesmaids. She auditioned to play Melissa McCarthy’s puppy loving Megan. She would have been great for that role too but, obviously, McCarthy absolutely killed it. Thankfully, she was still able to get a part in Bridesmaids, though. She continued with SiriusXM:
I just kind of added myself, in a way, to the scenes. But Paul [Feig] I just remember was so, and Kristen [Wiig] as well, she was like the biggest comedy star in America at that point. But she literally said, ‘Whatever you want to do just go for it. I don’t care. Like if you think it’s funny and want to try it, just go for it.’ And I think that kind of nice collaborative energy, which she must have done to everybody on the set, from her and from Paul as a director, they just got the most hilarious, spontaneous things. It was pretty much just all improvised all of that stuff.
According to the 41-year-old actress, a lot of what she ended up doing on set was some fun improvisation, because of course! Half of the cast of Bridesmaids were Saturday Night Live cast members, so it’s not super surprising. When it came to Rebel Wilson though, her role was not initially in the script, so it was a lot more off the cuff. Y’all remember that scene where she gets the back tattoo and pours frozen peas on her back? Classic.
Her small role in the movie led to some more work for the actress, such as two more Pitch Perfect films, rom-coms including How To Be Single and Isn’t it Romantic. Rebel Wilson is currently hosting a dog grooming competition show called Pooch Perfect and recently committed to a 60 pound weight-loss transformation in 2020.
Kristen Wiig and her Bridesmaids writing partner Annie Mumolo collaborated for a hilarious comedy Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, which came out earlier this year. The writing duo or director Paul Feig aren’t exactly keen on a sequel, considering they made something so well-loved the first time. You can stream Bridesmaids on PeacockTV.
