Paul Feig’sBridesmaidswas one ofthe most popular and widely acclaimed comediesof the 2010s. With its two Oscar nominations – Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo and Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy –Bridesmaidsbecame the first Judd Apatow production to be nominated for any Academy Awards. Wiig and McCarthy became movie stars overnight as a result ofBridesmaids, which remains a high benchmark for female-led comedies.
Wiig has been promoting her new comedyBarb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, which she co-wrote and stars in with Mumolo, and in an interview with the New York Times, she revealed a dark joke that got cut fromBridesmaids. On the eve of the wedding in the movie’s third act, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) goes missing and her new maid of honor Helen (Rose Byrne) recruits Lillian’s estranged best friend Annie (Wiig) to help with the search. The most memorable gag from this scene sees Annie driving recklessly past Officer Rhodes’ car to get his attention, but there was almost a much darker moment involving a corpse.
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According to Wiig, “when we were running around to find Lillian, we were going to find a woman lying on the ground. We’re like, ‘It’s Lillian – she’s dead!’ And then we were like, ‘Oh, wait – it’s not Lillian.’ And then we just keep running.” It’s easy to see why this scene was cut. The comic tone of finding a dead woman and callously leaving her behind is decidedly grimmer than the rest ofBridesmaids, in which the darkest jokes involve infected tattoos and C-bombs directed at teenagers.
The point of the scene in which Annie and Helen search for Lillian is really for them to reconcile their differences. Helen allows Annie to see the imperfect human being underneath her frustratingly perfect facade, which makes her more sympathetic. If they found a dead woman, then it might’ve distracted from the sentimentality of the moment. Even though Wiig and Byrneprobably would’ve played the scene hilariously, Feig was right to cut it from the movie.
In the decade since the film hit theaters and became a huge box office hit, many fans have been demandingaBridesmaidssequel. Feig addressed these demands last year and cast doubt on a sequel because of what worked aboutBridesmaids: “Everybody thinks they want aBridesmaidssequel, and it could be fun… It’s obviously up to Kristen – she’s the keeper of the keys on that – but [aBridesmaidssequel] would have to be something that you can emotionally engage in again and not just go, ‘It’s Megan’s crazy wedding in the Bahamas!’ and all kinds of hijinks happen. That could be funny, but I just think you need more for a movie to be great.” InBridesmaids, the jokes and bits are layered over a well-told story with clear-cut character arcs. If a sequel would just be jokes without the story and character, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Maris currently available via premium VOD. When it was first released, it quickly became the third-most rented title on Apple TV. Feig, on the other hand, was on board to helm a monster movie calledDark Army, but recently revealed thatUniversal has cold feet about the budget, so it might not come to fruition.
