Original-Cin Q&A: Rebel Wilson on Becoming an Action Hero in Bride Hard
By Bonnie Laufer
Acclaimed Australian comedic actress Rebel Wilson is back, and we can now call her an action hero!
In her new action-comedy Bride Hard, opening June 20, Wilson plays Sam, best friend by day… and secret agent the rest of the time.
When a mercenary group takes a lavish wedding party hostage, they have no idea what they are in for as the maid of honour is covert secret agent Sam ready to do anything to save the wedding of her best friend Betsy (Anna Camp).
Bonine Laufer caught up with Wilson for a short chat to talk about her action debut.
Original-Cin: It was fun to have you here with your directorial debut The Deb, which closed the Toronto International Film Festival last September.
Rebel Wilson: I love Toronto. I had such a great time there back in September. Toronto kind of has a bit of an Australian vibe to it; the people are so nice and the city has great food!
O-C: Now you’re back on screen in the action-comedy Bride Hard and you kick some serious ass in this film. So, do you now feel confident that if your best friend was in peril, you could save her?
RW: (Laughs) I weirdly do. If someone busted in on me right now, I'm looking around and I've got an Evian bottle. I know how to smash them across the face only in self-defense, obviously, but I do have a few skills from my work on this movie. I’d definitely do anything for my friends, I feel like I'd do a lot of things to help them if they were in peril.
O-C: I understand you took this action quite seriously and did a lot of your own fight scenes but right at the end of the shoot you got injured.
RW: Most of this film was a ton of fun, but that was not. I'd gotten through the whole shoot, and I was doing this stunt sequence which is actually the very beginning fight in the opening of the movie in Paris, and I'm struggling with the stunt guy, and he had a gun in his hand.
It was 3 in the morning, and we're in the rehearsal. The gun had fallen out of his hand in the struggle, and it was a foam gun, and they'd replaced it with not a real gun, luckily, but a fake, a hard plastic gun. During our scuffle the butt of it whacked across my face accidentally. It was just a freak accident.
O-C The dangers of playing an action hero!
RW: Yes, and then my nose split open right across the bridge and there was so much blood. I thought my nose was broken, but it wasn't and then they rushed me to the hospital, and I had to get a plastic surgeon to come in, because it was right in the middle of my face, to stitch it up so carefully that it wouldn't leave any permanent marks.
The doctor that came at 6:30 in the morning to the Savannah hospital really stitched me up good. About six weeks later, it had pretty much healed, and I just had to get some laser on that area. Now you can't even tell.
O-C: Thank goodness you're OK.
RW: It was one of those freaky things. Normally, I put my body on the line for comedy, and this was really putting my body on the line for the action.
O-C: It is so much fun to see you and Anna Camp back together 14 years after Pitch Perfect. Did you guys just fall right back into bestie mode?
RW: She’s the best, it was like no time had passed. She's such a world-class actress, honestly one of the best. She does a lot of serious drama stuff as well. She can pretty much do anything. This girl is so talented in so many ways. I've watched her career come up, and how we initially met is that we tested against each other for a television pilot, right before Pitch Perfect, so we go way back.
She's the funnest girl to hang out with and also to do scenes with and her improv skills are off the charts. She's so bubbly and so fun. I'm always down for a laugh, but I'm not fun every moment of every day and Anna Camp is just really super fun all the time.
O-C: It was also fun to watch Justin Hartley, who doesn’t take himself too seriously in the film.
RW: Justin's great and was down for anything. He was in my movie Senior Year, and I discovered then he’s really funny. He's so good looking and fit. He played college baseball but is one of the most down-to-earth people out there. The whole cast was a dream.
I think Steven Dorff as the bad guy nailed it and then Divine Joy Randolph, who plays one of our brides maids’ squad members. She just cracked me up all the time, especially when she was improvising.
We got a pretty stacked cast, everyone played off each other so well.
O-C: One thing I did learn is I can always pull out my curling iron if I need a weapon!
RW: They’re actually pretty dangerous. I got burnt by one of them the other day, very minorly on the top of my head!
O-C: As a fighting weapon, you got to unplug!
RW: Yes (laughs)! Unplugging one is the key when you’re in self-defense mode!