Melissa McCarthy had quite the excellent adventure at a strip club to prepare for her hit film Bridesmaids.
The 50-year-old actress appeared with husband Ben Falcone on Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday, Dec. 1, where Andy Cohen asked for her favorite example of the movie’s female cast members supporting each other.
For McCarthy, a cherished memory from the shoot was Kristen Wiig suggesting that the cast should bond by attending a real-life strip performance of The Hollywood Men, a male exotic-dance show. As the Superintelligence star explained, there was originally a scene in Bridesmaids that involved a male strip club, but it didn’t make it into the final version of director Paul Feig‘s iconic 2011 Oscar-nominated comedy.
What made the adventure extra special was the fact that the dancers put on sexy skits that referenced pop-culture touchstones. Particularly memorable was a bit based on the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix, which starred Keanu Reeves as Neo.
“It was the guys in suits, and they were just running in place on stage,” McCarthy explained. “And then the guy playing Neo, he had a long leather duster on—lots of dusters.”
The Gilmore Girls alum recalled that co-star Rose Byrne had a little trouble getting into the spirit of the outing.
“I do remember Rose Byrne, just with her hands up with someone dancing in front of her, and she just was saying, ‘Please don’t ruin my blouse with all that body oil,'” McCarthy added.
Rebel Wilson clearly has fond memories of the trip as well. In May 2019, she posted photos to Instagram from the strip show.
“Okay this post is a bit racy – was just going through some old photos and found these from the night Kristen Wiig took the girls from BRIDESMAIDS to a strip club for cast bonding,” Wilson captioned the shots.
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