Bridesmaids: 23 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Never Knew About How It Was Made

The beloved comedy is turning 15 in 2026, with the cast marking the occasion by reuniting on stage at the Oscars.

This time 15 years ago, some sceptics were seriously still carrying on that tiresome debate about whether a female-led comedy would actually be funny when Bridesmaids arrived on the scene.

Naysayers were more than proven wrong when the comedy came out, and not only made audiences around the world howl with laughter, but became producer Judd Apatow’s highest-grossing film, taking more than £220 million at the box office.

Viewers immediately fell in love with Kristen Wiig’s Annie, a maid of honour who is helping her best friend Lillian, played Maya Rudolph, prepare for her wedding, while also trying to keep a group of unruly bridesmaids (the incomparable Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) in check.

But it wasn’t just the audiences that were won over by the tale of enduring female friendship (and bodily functions). Bridesmaids was also nominated for the Best Musical Or Comedy prize at the Golden Globes, and even earned two Oscar nods, for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s writing and Melissa McCarthy’s performance.

To mark the movie’s 15th anniversary, the cast (minus Wendy McLendon-Covey, sadly) reunited at the 2026 Academy Awards, giving Bridesmaids fans the world over the urge to rewatch our favourite messy comedy – and sing along to Hold On with Annie and pals.

As many of us revisit the hit movie, we’re taking a peek behind the scenes, and it sounds like it was about as much fun to make as it is to watch.

Here are 23 facts you might not have known about how Bridesmaids came together…

It took five years for Bridesmaids to make it off the page and onto the screen

Getting Bridesmaids to the big screen was certainly not a quick and easy task.

The first table read took place in 2007, with Bridesmaids finally appearing on director Paul Feig’s desk five years after he first heard about it. As he put it, the film saved his career.

“In 2010, I was at a low point,” he told Luxury London. “I was directing internet commercials for Macy’s. I was thinking ‘what am I doing with my career?’. Then I got a call out of the blue saying ‘that wedding movie’ is going to happen.”

Paul cites the film as a “game changer” in terms of his filmmaking, because it took him out of movie jail after the commercial failures of I Am David and Unaccompanied Minors.

Bridesmaids almost had a very different title

Producer Judd Apatow wasn’t originally sold on the film’s title, worried it would put off male cinemagoers.

“To get guys in, we were just going to call it Naked Boobs And Guns, but we didn’t have either one of those things, so we changed it,” Kristen joked to Collider. “We actually had a really hard time, trying to think of the title, to be honest. It was hard.”

In fact, it was nearly called Maid Of Honour, until one of the producers’ friends named his own film that title.

Several comedy actors almost played Megan, the character who propelled Melissa McCarthy to international fame

It’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else in the role of Melissa McCarthy’s boisterous Megan, but a few different people were also in the frame to take on the character, with Paul Feig even claiming that Megan was the most auditioned-for role in the cast.

Speaking to BuzzFeed in 2012, Busy Phillips revealed she was considered for the role, having previously worked with Judd Apatow on the short-lived show Freaks And Geeks.

“The part wasn’t defined necessarily as one thing [when I auditioned],” she recalled. “I was doing a very specific take on it, and they really liked it. But I think, ultimately, Miss McCarthy is perfect in that movie.”

As well as Busy, Rebel Wilson also auditioned for the part, although she ultimately landed the role of Annie’s roommate, Brynn.

It was actually Kristen Wiig who pointed Bridesmaids’ director towards her friend Melissa McCarthy, who at the time was still best known for Gilmore Girls and Mike & Molly

Paul Feig told Glamour in 2020: “[Megan] came in and her take on the character was so different than anyone else that it took me a good 10 seconds to even realise what she was doing.”

In a 2011 interview, Paul admitted he was initially unsure why she was playing the character as a “lesbian” doing “weird sex stuff”, before realising he was actually watching a genius at work.

“The mistake a lot of people make in casting is they get so tied to the words and the character they wrote that they don’t see when somebody is better........

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