Zach Galifianakis Bribed The Hangover Director’s Assistant a Huge Sum of Money To Remove 1 Scene To No Avail
Having made his debut in 1996 in the TV sitcom Boston Common, Zach Galifianakis rose to fame as Alan in The Hangover trilogy. He also joined the TV sketch comedy Saturday Night Live for two weeks; he even had a hilarious encounter with popstar Britney Spears who hosted the show one week during his tenure. He went on to appear in small roles in many movies such as Corky Romano, Heartbreakers, and Super High Me.
Zach Galifianakis’s performance in the 2009 comedy film The Hangover as Alan Garner won him the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. However, the movie was not as easy for him to shoot as one might think. In fact, he went to great lengths to get one scene removed from the movie but failed to get it done.
Zach Galifianakis Tried to Bribe The Hangover Director’s Assistant
The Hangover follows the story of four friends, Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Stu Price (Ed Helms), Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) who visit Las Vegas to have a Bachelor’s party to celebrate Doug’s upcoming marriage. However, things take a turn for the worse when the groom goes missing, and his three friends have no recollection of the events of the previous night.
While talking to Hollywood in an interview in 2014, Galifianakis revealed how a particularly provocative scene involving him and an elderly woman was rather embarrassing for him and he even tried to get it out of the film. He said:
“I was much more embarrassed than she was. She didn’t care. She didn’t care at all. It was strange. You would think that I wouldn’t be the one who was embarrassed; I was extremely embarrassed. I really didn’t even want it in there. I offered Todd’s assistant a lot of money to convince him to take it out of the movie. I did. But it made it in there.”
Read More: Between Two Ferns: Best Comments By Zach Galifianakis
The Campaign actor went on to say that he was told that the movie might have an NC-17 rating, but the rating board did not bother to watch the closing credits in which the scene was there.
The Hangover‘s Director Gave Creative Freedom to Zach Galifianakis
The Hangover was a hit as it grossed over $467 million and even became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in the US, a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for nearly 25 years. Not to mention that Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis became friends during the filming of the movie, and went on to appear in two more sequels.
Director Todd Phillips might have put Galifianakis into an awkward situation by making him do that scene in the closing credits, but he also gave him creative freedom with regard to the character. The actor confirmed this by saying:
“I wasn’t too surprised because when I met with Todd a couple of times, I could tell that he wanted it, right from the get-go. He wanted the jokes that surprised him — to entertain him — while he was sitting behind [the monitor] watching us. So he encouraged it very, very much.”
Galifianakis went on to say that this is why directors like to hire actors with a comedy background for such comedic roles because then it is easier for both of them.
