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Kristen Wiig didn’t realize how much the audience was ready to paarrtyyy in 2011.
The actress, 52, revealed that she didn’t know how successful the rom-com “Bridesmaids” would be until a few weeks after its theatrical release.
“I remember after opening weekend, they were like, ‘Well, we tried,’” Wiig reminisced while on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast. “And we were like, ‘Sorry.’”
She added, “We just thought, like, that was it. And then I think just more and more people kept seeing it and then it kind of happened later.”
Wiig labeled the movie a “grower.”
Wiig, who co-wrote the hit project with Annie Mumolo, starred as Annie, the maid of honor, trying to plan a wedding for her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and leads the group of bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) down the path to matrimony.
Poehler, 54, gushed, “It still remains a lot of people’s favorite comedy and it’s still a spec for what it looks like to have a bunch of women in a film together writing their own material.”
Last year, “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig got candid on the pressures he felt to make the movie land.
While on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s on Me” podcast, the director, 63, admitted that the project was “predicted to not do well right up until the day of release.”
Feig recalled that he “told for months, ‘Another movie starring women all hinges on the success of this.’ And it’s like, ‘Really? So I’m just about to kill movies for women.’”
“Bridesmaids” ended up racking in over $300 million worldwide.
The film was also nominated for two Academy Awards. It earned one nod for Best Original Screenplay for Wiig and Mumolo, 52, and a second for McCarthy, 55, for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2021, Feig spilled some behind the scenes secrets about the beloved movie.
He confessed to Business Insider that the original script involved a sequence that showed a shirtless Matt Damon chopping up wood but it never made the final cut.
In 2024, meanwhile, Wiig got candid on the possibility of a sequel.
Unfortunately, the actress said “the story has ended” for her character.
“It’s never been a conversation,” Wiig told the Hollywood Reporter at the time. “That story had an end, and it’s so beloved to me for 10 million reasons, and I think it’s OK to just have it exist in the world as it is.”
“Bridesmaids” still remains one of the most iconic female-driven comedies to date.
“People get scared. What’s wrong with having a big female cast, why is that scary?” Wiig wondered why there haven’t been more films to follow suit.
McCarthy, however, admitted she would jump at the chance to portray her “Bridesmaids” character once again.
“I would do a ‘Bridesmaids’ sequel this afternoon, right now,” she exclaimed to People in 2023. “That group of women was the most magical thing ever. Almost all of us were really good friends already. I think it was such a magical time.”
Rudolph, 53, also threw her ring into the hat for sequel ideas.
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t be called ‘Bridesmaids,’ it would be called ‘Old Ladies’ or something,” the “SNL” vet told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “I’ll be down.”
