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Many films have been deemed to have changed Hollywood, some being no-brainers, like Citizen Kane, Star Wars, Jaws, The Godfather, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, all of which have been declared undisputed cinematic classics, but there are also the more recent movies that have had a hand in shaping the ever-changing landscape of the industry.
These films might not be uttered in the same breath as Casablanca or Sunset Boulevard, such as the animated kids’ films Ratatouille or the comedy Mean Girls, which are not exactly seen as high-brow, but their influence and impact have hardly gone unnoticed since their respective releases in the 2000s.
Emily Blunt, who broke through into Hollywood with a role in the rather influential comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada, thinks that many people are too harsh on these kinds of films, typically female-led comedies, which aren’t seen as important. But that’s just not the case, and there’s a specific film that she believes played a pivotal role in developing the Hollywood landscape into something a lot more welcoming for female stars.
Talking to The Telegraph, she once said, “I think there’s a tendency to think women can’t be funny. But you look at someone like Kristen Wiig, I think people like her are real trailblazers for girls in the comedy world. If you love it or hate it, you can’t deny that Bridesmaids is such a big film for women. It was a really important film to happen.”
Released in 2011, Bridesmaids revolves around a largely female cast, and the movie is packed with dirty (sometimes poo-themed) jokes. The female characters are messy, outrageous, crude, and hilarious, and despite the fact that women have long been expected to present in a completely opposite way to this onscreen, Bridesmaids was a hit.
The movie proved to be a massive turning point for female-led comedies in Hollywood, although producer Judd Apatow once admitted that the cast and crew didn’t actively go into the project with the ambition to execute such dramatic change; it just happened. He told The Daily Beast, “We didn’t think it was any different than something like The House Bunny or Baby Mama. So we didn’t think we were breaking any new ground. We just thought it was a fun thing to do.”
Interestingly, Melissa McCarthy earned an Oscar nomination for her role as Megan Price, which broke new ground for the comedy genre, for it’s rare for an actor appearing in something on the level of Bridesmaids, a mid-budget, scatalogically-powered comedy, to bag an Oscar, but clearly, something had shifted.
The film paved the way for the likes of Pitch Perfect, which emerged the following year, as well as Girls Trip, Bad Moms, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Ocean’s 8, The Heat, Trainwreck and Booksmart. While some are undeniably better than others, you can’t ignore the influence that Bridesmaids has had on an increase in female-led comedies, many of which are not afraid to show women in a not-so-flattering light.
For years, comedy was predominantly the domain of men, but thanks to the success of movies like Bridesmaids, as Blunt notes, the genre has finally become a considerably more equal playing field than before.
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