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SINGAPORE : Never did I think I'd see the day when anyone, let alone everyone, loved a hangover. But, hey, let's face it - there isn't a more enjoyable way to live out these hard times than in a state of inebriation. Really.
Which explains why "The Hangover", a movie about a Vegas bachelor party gone wrong, has earned an astounding US$235.9 million (S$340 million) and counting since its American release a month-and-a-half ago.
But becoming the top-grossing R-rated comedy of all time in the United States (breaking a record previously held by the classic Beverly Hills Cop) isn't easy. It takes hard work, dedication, tenacity, a random tiger and a hot blonde chick like Heather Graham to get everyone to love a Hangover.
Babes And Babies
"My worst hangover experience has to be that time I fainted. I passed out for, like, a minute, woke up and then fainted again. I had to lie on the bathroom floor for like 20 to 30 minutes," 39-year-old "Boogie Nights" bombshell Graham revealed to TODAY over the phone from New Orleans, where she is shooting "Father Of Invention" with Kevin Spacey.
"Can you believe that after that, I got up and actually started dancing again? But after everything, I told myself: I don't think I am going to party like that ever again. It wasn't worth it at all!"
Graham, who plays a "hippy stripper" - alongside the hungover groomsmen trio of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, who spend the most of the movie looking for the missing groom (Justin Bartha) - also shared that being the only girl during the Vegas shoot was "really fun".
"I had no competition, so that was good," she quipped. "Actually, it was great. I got all the attention!"
Except maybe when it came to the babies. Her character is a breast-feeding mother, which meant the actress had to deal with taking care of the baby actors onscreen and off.
"I love babies and I had to work with six altogether. If you look closer, you'll realise it's a bunch of different babies.
"Some of the babies were really great, but a few really didn't want to be there. They just wouldn't let anyone hold them except for their mom. And that was not so fun because, really, you don't want to be holding a baby that is constantly crying and, like, hating you, basically," she said, laughing.
In Randomness We Trust
Not to say that it was all tears on the set. Graham said it was hard to keep a straight face and not crack up during her scenes. "The guys were always making stuff up and you would never expect the wacky things they came up with. Luckily, we did a lot of takes."
For stand-up comedian Galifianakis, improvisation was second nature. "The outline of the movie was a very good blueprint. But any comedy director wants you to improvise. We improvised a lot," he said.
The 39-year-old, who has had bit parts in films like "Bubble Boy" and "What Happens In Vegas", also revealed that some jokes were made up and then sustained throughout the movie.
"It wasn't in the script that I had this weird crush on Bradley Cooper's character where at the end I had my hair combed just like he does. That was just something we came up with, like I was flirting with him," he said.
"It wasn't flirting - it was just that I really wanted that cool guy to like me. When you're a kid and there's a cool guy and he's nice, you want to be nice back."
The ridiculousness of it all works just fine for director Todd Phillips, who is best known for comedy classics like "Old School" and "Road Trip". For him, it was "the randomness" that tickled him.
"I like that people see (the jokes) as randomness, but I also like that there are reasons behind them," he said.
"Like the chicken (in the film)? The chicken they took to feed the tiger. That was food for the tiger when they were going to wake up, but they didn't remember. They stole a cop car because they needed a grating in between them to put the tiger in. I have reasons for everything!"
So, with the surprising runaway success of the movie, how does he feel about "The Hangover" setting the new gold standard of Vegas bachelor parties?
"Well, we set the bar pretty low," he replied with a laugh. "Do you think there will be a lot of copycat incidents?" - TODAY/ra
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