The success of 2009’s The Hangover proved two things. First, it’s possible for a film that features photomontages of naked strippers to take home a Golden Globe. Second, movie audiences are entertained to no end by the immaturity and awkward homosocial bonding of adult men.
The Hangover portrays the aftermath of a bachelor party that leaves the groom missing in action, and his three companions unable to remember anything about the previous night. In an effort to relocate the groom, the guys embark on a chaotic journey through Las Vegas, which, in good bromantic fashion, ultimately leads to the strengthening of the “Wolfpack,” as one character deems the group of friends.
Bradley Cooper, the alpha male of said Wolfpack has just arrived at a round table interview for The Hangover Part II. Cooper plays Phil, the suave leader of the group, who is usually responsible for extricating the guys from the various lunatic situations that they manage to attract. It’s easy to see why Cooper was cast as a consummate charmer. He is almost an hour late to the interview, but when he strides into the room — tall, tanned, and absurdly blue-eyed — I find it hard to be in any way disgruntled.
“Hi guys,” he says, as he takes his seat at the head of the table and flashes a smile at the journalists sitting around him. His teeth are very white.
A reporter asks Cooper if he felt any pressure to live up to the success of the first movie when he was filming The Hangover Part II.
“It was more excitement than anything else,” Cooper replies. “I was really looking forward to playing Phil again and seeing what that would be like after two years.”
While the experience of reprising a role was a new one for Cooper, his character is confronted by rather familiar circumstances in The Hangover Part II. This time around, the guys head to Thailand, where Stu, another member of the group, is getting married. After a seemingly harmless bonfire two days before the wedding, they wake up in a grimy Bangkok hotel room, completely oblivious as to how they got there. The bride’s brother has disappeared, and in order to find him, the characters have to piece together what exactly they got up to the previous night.
While The Hangover Part II doesn’t exactly offer much in the way of original plot trajectory, Cooper tells the journalists that he agrees with the filmmaker’s decision to maintain the structure of the first film in the sequel.
“I wanted to make sure that you got to know these characters more,” he says. “I was really happy we adhered to the structure. I thought if we didn’t […] we would have been starting way behind the curve. But that said, it made it even that more difficult to make it fresh, so I was really happy that we went darker and that the stakes are raised. What it demanded is that we all really had to step up our game.”
The film is darker than the original since it takes place in the sleazy alleyways of downtown Bangkok. While the characters do encounter the city’s notorious sex trade and some fairly malicious criminals, fans of the first film need not fear that The Hangover Part II skimps on humour in an attempt to give the sequel some edge. It delivers just as many raunchy, ridiculous scenarios as the first movie, several of which involve a vest-clad, drug-dealing monkey. It also features just as many naked breasts, although in Bangkok, the breasts are sometimes attached to a male body.
When a reporter asks him to describe the experience of filming in Bangkok, Cooper grins. “Well, I didn’t get shot, thank God,” he says. “Although I felt like I did after some meals.”
He pauses and adds, “I loved it, but it was the hardest job I’ve ever done. […] Logistically, it was a nightmare and there were just a lot of people around all the time […] and you know, we were halfway around the world. But all those elements are what made the movie as pungent as it is, you really feel like we’re in Bangkok. You see it in our eyes and in our swagger and the way we breathe.”
After about ten minutes, Cooper’s publicist comes into the room and tells the journalists that there is time for one more question. I had wanted to ask Cooper why he thinks male friendship has become such a popular subject for recent comedies — something I came up with after deciding to avoid any painfully hacky questions, especially ones that pertain to Cooper’s experience working with a monkey, or to his personal stories about hangovers. Before I get a chance to address Cooper, however, another journalists blurts out, “What was it like working with the monkey? Does the animal improvise in some sense? Does she have comedic timing?”
Brilliant.
If Cooper is unimpressed by the question, he doesn’t let on. “Consciously?” he asks, and then laughs. “I don’t think so. She was wonderful. The great thing about working with animals is that it forces you to be present, because you literally don’t know what they’re going to do. […] I loved her. […] She can do anything, she’s great and everybody became kind of smitten with her. And she arguably steals the whole movie.”
Truthfully, he has a point. It’s hard to outshine a monkey, especially one that wears a vest. But having his spotlight stolen by a simian doesn’t seem to have made Cooper any less enthusiastic about The Hangover Part II.
“I saw the movie two weeks ago,” he says at one point during the interview. “It’s not as new as the first one, because the first one established the structure. But if you could separate yourself from that and just look at the film as a whole, I don’t think you can even argue that… it’s actually better.”
