“This is not that kind of town”: Bradley Cooper’s ‘The Hangover’ Scene Was Chased Down by Police Who Threatened to Shut Down the Filming for an Extremely Wild Scene
Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis, The Hangover was created by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore and was helmed by Todd Phillips. It is recognized as the largest R-rated comedy franchise in history. The trio chronicles the escapades of four buddies and the subsequent consequences.
The films that were released between 2009 and 2013 have made nearly $1.4 billion globally. The audience has grown to adore the trilogy over the years, and while the first and second films did very well at the box office and earned favorable reviews from both reviewers and viewers, the third and final film received negative reviews. The crew had a challenge because of a certain sequence in The Hangover. Let’s learn more.
Todd Phillips shares Las Vegas police threatened to shut the The Hangover down
During an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, actor Ken Jeong who plays the famous Mr. Chow in the movie shared that for a scene in The Hangover where Mr. Chow had to leap out of the trunk in his underwear. He decided to do it naked. He explained to the publication,
“No one made me do it. I thought, if I did that, this movie would go like a bottle-rocket. Bradley and I are good friends. We did ‘All About Steve’ prior to ‘The Hangover.’ He and I had dinner the night before we shot that scene. I talked about my plan. Bradley loved it. As an actor, he encouraged me to be fearless, too.”
But the director, Todd Phillips, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, said that it wasn’t easy to film that scene because the Las Vegas police kept saying that they’d shut them down. Phillips said,
“When Ken jumped out of the trunk, there was a policeman who said that people were complaining about Mandalay Bay, which was in no way true. He said, ‘You keep doing it, and we’re going to shut you down’.”
Ed Helms chimed into the state, “Ken is sprinting through an empty lot naked, and the cop says something like, ‘This is Vegas — we don’t act like that. This is not that kind of town.’” The crew eventually filmed the scene by constructing a wall of blackout cloth to not cause any trouble to the people.
Todd Phillips revealed that it was challenging for them to film The Hangover
During the interview, the director stated that when The Hangover premiered, the guys who owned casinos called him up and thanked him for boosting their business, but he revealed that it was not easy for them to get a hotel where they could shoot until Caesars did. He said,
“We had approached a few hotels that were like: “No, no, no. We don’t do filming.”
Bradley Cooper added that people did not react to them, noting that they were completely indifferent towards them as they would go in the elevator at 5 AM after filming and he would have huge scratches on his head, with his makeup on and the people just did not care, which was unbelievable.
During the interview with THR, Ken Jeong also revealed that filming The Hangover was magical for him. He mentioned, “My wife was going through breast cancer and chemotherapy at the time. [She recovered.] It was part of the reason I was so unhinged in the character; I think I was working out my own demons. Todd and Bradley were the only people who knew. The Hangover got me through the most difficult time of my life.”
Todd Phillips notes fans’ reaction made them expand Mr. Chow into the second and third movie
During the interview, the actors, the co-writers, and the director revealed that what Jon Lucas and Scott Moore had written as the original script for The Hangover was very different from what people see on-screen. It was all Todd Phillips who worked on the scripts while working on new characters, subplots, and much more.
Ed Helms shared with USA Today, “The structure of the film was there before Todd came on, but it wasn’t as imaginative”, whereas Bradley Cooper said to THR, “The characters were different in the original script. I was a used-car salesman. There wasn’t a Mr. Chow. I mean, Todd created everything.”
Todd Phillips co-wrote the script with Jeremy Garelick and went ahead to develop the iconic Mr. Chow, after witnessing fans’ reaction to his character, expanded his role in the second and third movies and Jeong said that he would not have a career if it wasn’t for The Hangover.
Source: THR
