50 Fun Facts About Bridesmaids

Judd Apatow produced Bridesmaids, but who directed it?

Paul Feig found a lasting partner on set: he went on to direct Melissa McCarthy, the film's breakout star, in The Heat, Spy and Ghostbusters.

Kristen Wiig co-wrote Bridesmaids with which fellow Groundlings performer?

Annie Mumolo wrote it with Wiig over several years, meeting at weekends while they lived and worked on opposite coasts, then cameoed as Annie's nervous seatmate on the plane.

What was the original title of the Bridesmaids script?

Maid of Honor named the job Annie is given, loses to Helen after the disastrous flight, and wins back on the wedding day.

In Bridesmaids, which city is home to Kristen Wiig's character, Annie Walker?

Milwaukee is home for Annie and Lillian, and the bride's fear of leaving it behind for married life in Helen's Chicago world drives the film's last crisis.

In Bridesmaids, which film does one bridesmaid pitch as a party theme for Lillian?

Fight Club becomes a 'female fight club' in the pitch: the guests grease up, spring a surprise on the unsuspecting bride and beat her up.

Where does Annie work at the start of Bridesmaids?

A jewelry store, where Annie talks engaged couples out of believing in lasting love and is finally fired for trading insults with a teenage customer.

Who plays Lillian, the bride and Annie's lifelong best friend, in Bridesmaids?

Maya Rudolph gets the film's most notorious image: struck by food poisoning in a couture wedding gown, her bride gives up and crouches down in the middle of a busy street.

Which uncredited actor plays Ted, the wealthy, self-absorbed man Annie sleeps with in Bridesmaids?

Jon Hamm's Ted gets his exit after Annie's car crash: he offers a lift, makes a crude proposition at the wheel, and she gets out and walks home.

In Bridesmaids, Helen, Annie's rival for Lillian's friendship, is the wife of whom?

Doug's boss is Helen's husband, Perry, so the engagement party is held where he is a member and the wedding plans swell to a budget Annie can't match.

Who plays Helen in Bridesmaids?

Rose Byrne first read for another part, then asked for 'a crack at Helen'; the director wanted a non-comedian so the rival wouldn't come out 'too arch'.

In Bridesmaids, why does Officer Nathan Rhodes first pull Annie over?

Erratic driving made him suspect she was drunk; she passes his roadside sobriety test by showing off, and the ticket he writes is for her broken brake lights instead.

Before Bridesmaids, Chris O'Dowd, who plays Officer Rhodes, was best known in Britain as Roy in which sitcom?

The IT Crowd cast him as a basement help-desk man who answers every caller with 'Have you tried turning it off and on again?'

In Bridesmaids, what kind of restaurant does Annie pick for the lunch that gives everyone food poisoning?

Brazilian: Annie swears by the cheap, out-of-the-way place, and only Helen, who skips the meat because a big meal is bad before a fitting, escapes what follows.

In the bridal-boutique scene of Bridesmaids, what does Megan do?

Defecates in the sink: with the bathroom overrun, Megan hoists herself onto the washbasin, shouting 'It's coming out of me like lava!'

In Bridesmaids, where is Helen's bachelorette trip headed, overruling Annie's lake-house idea?

Las Vegas is never reached: Annie's mid-air meltdown forces an emergency landing, and Lillian hands the rest of the planning to Helen.

In Bridesmaids, what does Annie take from Helen on the plane that leads to her breakdown?

A sedative and liquor: Helen gives the nervous flyer pills, then her own Scotch to 'give the pill a little kick', and Annie is soon sneaking into first class in sunglasses.

In Bridesmaids, one bridesmaid turns up with pins in her legs after falling off what?

A cruise ship: she says she pinballed down the railings on the way overboard, then met a dolphin that looked 'into my soul'.

In Bridesmaids, what theme does Helen give Lillian's bridal shower, stealing an idea Annie had suggested?

Parisian: Helen had waved off Annie's French idea as 'been there, done that', then used it herself and topped it by giving the bride a trip to Paris.

What does Nathan surprise Annie with the morning after their romantic night, prompting her to leave?

Baking supplies: he lays out butter, milk and a 'workshop' so they can cook together, and the nudge back toward her old trade sends her straight out of the door.

In Bridesmaids, who visits Annie at rock bottom and pushes her to take control of her life?

Megan pounces on Annie while playing 'your life', then tells how she went from a schoolgirl who had firecrackers thrown at her to a government job with top security clearance.

On the wedding day in Bridesmaids, why does Helen come to Annie for help?

Lillian is missing, hiding in her own apartment, and on the search Helen admits in tears that people only want her for her party planning and she has no real friends.

Which group appears as themselves to perform at Lillian's wedding in Bridesmaids?

Wilson Phillips are announced as the bride's favourite band singing her favourite song, and the surprise cameo gave the trio's own career a second wind.

Which 1990 number-one hit is performed live at Lillian's wedding to close Bridesmaids?

Hold On displaced Madonna's Vogue at the top of the chart in June 1990, and the film's finale, with the bride and Annie miming along, gave the song a second life.

How does Bridesmaids end for Annie and Nathan?

They kiss and ride off in his police car: he had ignored every attempt she made to apologise, then turned up unannounced once the wedding was over.

Bridesmaids earned Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and in which other category?

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy's nomination turned a sitcom regular into a box-office lead, with Identity Thief and The Heat following within two years.

Before Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy spent seven seasons in which TV role?

Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls was first meant for Alex Borstein, whose MADtv commitments ruled her out; she turned up instead as the inn's harpist.

Which actor, who married Melissa McCarthy in 2005, plays the undercover air marshal in Bridesmaids?

Ben Falcone kept turning up beside his wife, with cameos in Identity Thief, The Heat and Spy, and went on to direct her in Life of the Party and Thunder Force.

Which British comedian plays Gil, Annie's roommate and the brother of Rebel Wilson's Brynn, in Bridesmaids?

Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson, the film's oddball sibling flatmates, went on to share a real house in West Hollywood from 2012 to 2015.

Ellie Kemper, who plays Becca, was best known at the time for playing which character on The Office?

Erin Hannon was meant to last four episodes as the new receptionist, but the part grew, was rewritten around Kemper's own sunny manner, and ran to the finale.

Wendi McLendon-Covey, who plays Rita, went on to spend a decade as the matriarch of which sitcom family?

The Goldbergs kept her as smothering mother Beverly for all ten seasons; when Jeff Garlin left in 2021, his character died off-screen and the family carried on without him.

The actress who plays Lillian in Bridesmaids is the daughter of which singer?

Minnie Riperton and her husband used the tune of 'Lovin' You', her 1975 number one, to soothe their infant daughter, and on the album version she sings the child's name as it fades out.

The actress who plays Helen in Bridesmaids earned two Emmy nominations as Ellen Parsons in which legal thriller?

Damages cast her as a young lawyer hired by Glenn Close's ruthless litigator; in its first season her fiancé is murdered and she is charged with the crime.

The director of Bridesmaids created which cult high-school series, produced by Judd Apatow?

Freaks and Geeks was cancelled before its only season had finished airing, yet it launched the careers of a young cast that included Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel.

Jill Clayburgh's final film role was which Bridesmaids character?

Annie's mother: Clayburgh, an Oscar nominee for An Unmarried Woman, had lived privately with leukaemia for over 20 years and died six months before the comedy opened.

Which superhero film kept Bridesmaids off the top spot on its opening weekend in May 2011?

Thor kept first place in its second weekend, but Bridesmaids' $26 million debut ran well ahead of forecasts for an R-rated comedy with no proven big-screen names.

Bridesmaids is set in the Midwest, but in which city was nearly all of it filmed?

Los Angeles stood in for both of the film's cities: the designer said tight views of its downtown 'feel like Chicago', and he found his flat Midwestern highway in nearby Oxnard.

Apatow's habit of asking actors for film ideas led to Bridesmaids and, earlier, to which Steve Carell comedy?

The 40-Year-Old Virgin grew from an idea Carell gave Apatow on the Anchorman set; Apatow made Wiig the same offer after she drew big laughs in a bit part for him.

Before Bridesmaids opened, what did its director say Hollywood had riding on its box office?

More films starring women: he recalled an 'edict' that a hit would get more made and a flop would not, and feared becoming 'the man who killed movies for women for eternity'.

Pat Carroll, who cameos in Bridesmaids, voiced which Disney villain later played by Melissa McCarthy?

Ursula was imagined as a Bea Arthur type, but Arthur's agent took offence at the witch comparison and passed, and Carroll landed the sea witch only after a long search.

Why was no Bridesmaids sequel made in the decade after 2011?

Its writers declined to write one: Wiig said in 2012 that she and her co-writer were 'writing something else', and McCarthy called a sequel without Wiig 'a terrible idea'.

Which studio released Bridesmaids in US cinemas on May 13, 2011?

Universal Pictures previewed it hundreds of times around the country before release to build word of mouth, and two-thirds of the opening-weekend audience were women.

The idea for Bridesmaids came in 2006, shortly after Wiig was cast in which Apatow comedy?

Knocked Up gave her a few minutes as a passive-aggressive TV executive, and she drew such big laughs that Apatow asked whether she had a film idea of her own.

Rebel Wilson's reported $3,500 fee for playing Brynn in Bridesmaids all went toward what?

Screen Actors Guild fees to join the union swallowed the whole cheque, she wrote in her memoir, but 'that didn't matter to me. The experience was everything!'

Which star of The Office read for the bride in Bridesmaids before the part went to an SNL alumna?

Mindy Kaling said nobody ever calls her in to audition because she is 'so specific'; she had 'practiced it so much' for this part, and called losing it 'a heartbreaker'.

Ordered back to coach in Bridesmaids, Annie makes which plea to the first-class cabin?

'Help me, I'm poor' comes after she sneaks forward in sunglasses claiming to be 'Mrs. Iglesias' and Helen grandly offers up her own seat.

In Bridesmaids, Officer Rhodes says cops are 'just like' whom, except they can tell everyone afterwards?

Priests: he makes the offer when he runs into Annie after her bad night, a bag of carrots in hand, and the two end up sharing them.

On the plane in Bridesmaids, what does Annie insist on calling the male flight attendant?

Stove: he is Steve, who has just given her three seconds to get back to her seat, and when he corrects her she asks, 'Are you an appliance?'

Which actor's scene as Annie's blind date was cut from the finished Bridesmaids?

Paul Rudd spent a day as a perfect date who turns maniac on an ice rink, but the film was running long and Annie already had two men to choose between.

Why, according to Judd Apatow, did Bridesmaids nearly skip most foreign markets?

Bridesmaids aren't a thing in some cultures, the producers reasoned, yet the film took well over $100 million abroad, which Apatow called 'a wonderful surprise'.

In Bridesmaids, Officer Rhodes recognises Annie as the former owner of which business?

Cake Baby had Annie's own face on its sign, which is how he places her at the traffic stop; he remembers her cream puffs and agrees to drop the ticket.