Why you won’t see Christian Bale’s cameo in Bridesmaids

When you think of Christian Bale, you don’t think of guys with a particularly great sense of humor. Perhaps he does in his spare time but, uh, I’ve never seen that side of him. The dude could certainly loosen up and he almost did just that in one of the funniest movies of the year.

[Some minor spoilers for BRIDESMAIDS ahead…] In the version of BRIDESMAIDS you’ll see in theaters this Friday, there’s a scene about midway through where the bridesmaids head to a fancy boutique to try on dresses. As they’re all wearing their expensive frocks, a bout of food poisoning sets in after a dinner suggested by Kristen Wiig’s character Annie. But that wasn’t what Wiig and her co-writer Annie Mumolo originally wrote.

The original scene was far more relaxed. Says Wiig, “Originally, it was me trying on bridesmaids dresses and envisioning all these men chasing me through a forest.” She would eventually be caught by Christian Bale who would comb her hair and serve her tea. Adds director Paul Feig, “The original [scene] was very funny, but it just was girly in a way that felt expected.”

So Bale’s cameo was cut and it was producer Judd Apatow who suggested the sequence because, “We need [her] character to mess up one more time.”

I agree that the original scene sounds funny (and I’d love to see Bale do something funny and poke fun at his own image), but the new scene does set the tone for the rest of the film. BRIDESMAIDS isn’t so much a “best friends getting married” movie as it is a “losing my mind” movie and the new scene begins the downward spiral that really makes Annie start cracking up.

Now if we can only get Christian Bale in a comedy, we’ll be all set.