Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids changed the game for female-led Hollywood comedies in 2011. It edged out the Sex and the City movie to become the highest grossing R-rated comedy with a female lead. Kristen Wiig stars as Annie, who goes through a midlife crisis after her best friend gets engaged and finds a new best friend in her arrogant soon-to-be sister-in-law, Helen.

It was one of the funniest movies of the decade. A movie doesn’t make as big of a cultural impact as Bridesmaids did without going through a pretty interesting production process. So, here are ten interesting facts from the making of Bridesmaids.

JUDD APATOW ASKED KRISTEN WIIG TO COME UP WITH A MOVIE TO STAR HERSELF

In 2006, after working with Kristen Wiig on Knocked Up, Judd Apatow recognized her potential and asked her if she had any ideas for a starring vehicle for herself. He had previously done the same thing with Steve Carell, and it led to The 40-Year-Old Virgin getting made.

After Apatow’s enquiry, Wiig collaborated with her co-writer Annie Mumolo and they came up with the idea for Bridesmaids. Since Wiig was still a cast member on Saturday Night Live, the script took a few years to write. They met up on weekends to compare notes, and often conferred with Apatow to get his own notes.

THE VOMIT IN THE DRESS SHOP SCENE WAS MADE OUT OF OATMEAL AND FOOD COLORING

During the scene in the dress shop, the characters infamously get food poisoning from the dodgy restaurant they just ate at and start vomiting and diarrhea-ing all over the store.

The vomit featured in the scene was made out of a combination of oatmeal and food coloring. The diarrhea wasn’t made out of anything, because thankfully, it was depicted off-screen.

ROSE BYRNE IMPRESSED THE CAST WITH HER IMPROV SKILLS

Since Rose Byrne was mostly known for appearing in dramatic projects, such as the TV series Damages and the movie Sunshine, the makers of Bridesmaids didn’t expect her to bring much improv to the table. So, the crew was pleasantly surprised when she ad-libbed a bunch of great dialogue as Helen.

She ended up being one of the best improvisers in the cast. The most prominent example of this is Helen’s attempts to one-up Annie’s speech at the engagement party, which was partially unscripted.

ONLY ONE FEMALE DIRECTOR WAS CONSIDERED TO HELM THE PROJECT

Bridesmaids ended up being helmed by Paul Feig in the first of a long string of female-led comedies, including The Heat, Spy, and the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. However, Feig was not the producers’ first choice to direct.

Many other filmmakers were considered, including Todd Phillips (The Hangover), Greg Mottola (Superbad), David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer), and Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). On this long list of directors, oddly enough, only one female filmmaker was considered – Anne Fletcher – and the studio vetoed her.

KRISTEN WIIG’S CO-WRITER WAS KEPT ON THE SET FOR REWRITES

In a case a scene needed to be rewritten on the fly, Kristen Wiig’s co-writer Annie Mumolo was hired to be present on the set throughout the whole shoot of Bridesmaids. She also cameoed as the frightened passenger sitting next to Annie on the plane to Vegas.

At the time, Mumolo was eight months into a pregnancy, but she still managed to make it to the set every day and provide rewrites if they were necessary. Wiig and Mumolo ended up landing an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for penning this movie.

JON HAMM CHOSE TO GO UNCREDITED TO AVOID MISREPRESENTING THE MOVIE

Jon Hamm appears in quite a few scenes in Bridesmaids as Ted, Annie’s on-and-off friend-with-benefits, but his name doesn’t appear in the credits. It was actually Hamm’s own idea to go uncredited, because he didn’t want his involvement to give audiences the wrong idea.

Since he was famous for starring in Mad Men, he didn’t want moviegoers to think that Bridesmaids would be a drama – or even that it would have serious dramatic elements – because it was an all-out comedy.

THE WRITERS ARGUED WITH JUDD APATOW OVER INCLUDING BROAD JOKES

While Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo were writing the script for Bridesmaids, producer Judd Apatow – who was bankrolling the whole thing – kept pushing for physical comedy and broad jokes to be included. Wiig and Mumolo argued with Apatow over these alterations, as they prefer to go for a subtler, more naturalistic style of comedy that finds the funny in real-life situations.

Bridesmaids’ most famously slapstick-y sequence – which, of course, is the scene in the dress shop where everyone gets diarrhea – was added to the script at the behest of Apatow and director Paul Feig.

CHRIS O’DOWD WAS ORIGINALLY EXPECTED TO DO AN AMERICAN ACCENT

The cop that Annie falls for was originally written as American in the screenplay. However, when Chris O’Dowd was cast in the role, everyone involved in the production fell in love with his natural Irish accent and asked him to play the character as Irish.

O’Dowd’s Irish accent just sounds right, especially to fans of his previous work, like The IT Crowd, so it would’ve been strange to see him forcing an unnatural American accent in this movie.

ELLIE KEMPER STUDIED ACTING UNDER JON HAMM’S TUTELAGE

Before heading out to Hollywood to become a star, Jon Hamm worked as a high school drama teacher. He taught acting at the John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri, and Ellie Kemper was one of his students there. The two actors don’t share any scenes in Bridesmaids, but that’s still a pretty amazing coincidence.

MELISSA MCCARTHY BASED HER PERFORMANCE ON GUY FIERI

Melissa McCarthy became an A-list movie star overnight following her hilarious performance as Megan in Bridesmaids. She even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in the role.

The actor based her performance as Megan on Guy Fieri, and specifically how he carries himself in appearances on reality TV. McCarthy even wanted to get frosty hair like Fieri’s, but the filmmakers managed to talk her out of it.