Bridesmaids is one of the best movies of the 2010s, thanks to its fantastic women-led cast and it’s absolutly hilarious story. It also features so many outlandish scenarios that make it unforgettable, like the infamous gross-out bridal shopping scene, an aggressive game of tennis, and a Parisian bridal shower gone wrong. However, there was one unhinged Bridesmaids scene featuring Kristen Wiig that didn’t make it into the final cut, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
So, in the Paul Feig flick, Lillian and her bridesmaids plan a bachelorette party in Las Vegas, but they never make it there due to a drugged-out Annie causing a scene on the flight. However, in the original script, the gang did make it to Las Vegas. Explaining the call they got from Judd Apatow about cutting the sequence, co-screenwriter Annie Mumolo said on Radio Andy:
And he called us in literally about a month before we started shooting and was like, ‘All right, have a seat.’ And Judd was like, ‘I’m cutting Vegas.’ It was almost 60 pages. He was like, ‘I’m cutting Vegas.’ And we were like, ‘OK.’ Then he was like, ‘We need to do something where they don’t get there. Just try over the weekend. Maybe they’re just, I don’t know, see what happens over the weekend, maybe they’re just on the plane or something.’ So, again, very pregnant. I did about two hours of uncontrollable sobbing and then was like, ‘OK, we got to go.’ Kristen was in New York, so we got on the phone and wrote the airplane scene, which is one of my favorites by far.
I can understand the uncontrollable sobbing if 60 pages of a script went down the drain. At the same time, I can understand why Judd Apatow wanted to take it out. As Mumolo explained, around the time of Bridesmaids’ release, there were many great movies about Las Vegas coming out, like The Hangover, What Happens in Vegas, and 21. So, it’s possible Apatow didn’t want to follow the comedy trend.
Plus, ultimately, this rewrite was amazing because it led to the iconic airplane scene, which features some of the film’s best one-liners and is totally unique to this comedy.
However, for curious minds, here’s what the original Vegas scene entailed; it’s wild:
Well, [Annie] couldn’t afford the trip everyone else went on. So she had to stay in a different hotel, and they get split up from the get-go almost. She ends up in a different club, where she meets a nice gentleman and has a thing with him, an adventure. Then his girlfriend shows up where they are, and she gets into a fight with a group of young community college students.
Well, that sounds like quite the trip! It also would have fit right in with the outlandish and slapstick moments in Bridesmaids. So, even though I already think the movie is perfect, there’s another part of me that wants to see Annie’s sidequest in Vegas.
Now, if you thought the possibility of Annie getting beaten up by community college girls was crazy, her story in Sin City isn’t over:
So we had that. She comes dragging in with a black eye the next morning, and they had all just gone to the spa. She was looking for them bar to bar, meets someone, and then just gets the shit kicked out of her. So that’s what was there. There were a couple other things in there, but the gist of it was getting split off and having a different trip than the rest of the bachelorette party.
Talk about a Vegas trip gone wrong. This truly sounds wild, and part of me would love to see this trip made into a short film.
However, I have to admit, I feel like the airplane scene is ultimately better. Annie went through the wringer throughout Bridesmaids as she had to compete with Helen for Lillian’s friendship, dealt with romance troubles, and was down on herself after her bakery didn’t work out. Having Annie endure a black eye while all of her friends were living a luxurious life at a spa would have been more tragic for me than funny.
So, in the end, what was supposed to happen in Vegas never did. However, because of that, we got a hilarious airplane scene that made us all “ready to partay with the best of them!”
You can revisit one of the best rom-coms of all time by streaming Bridesmaids with a Starz subscription.