These 7 behind-the-scenes facts from The Hangover trilogy will shock you

The Hangover trilogy is outrageous, full of adventure and unforgettable characters, but what went on behind the scenes is even more shocking. The production of these movies was a rollercoaster by itself due to controversial actor choices, dangerous production solutions, and more.

These production details will show the effort, inventiveness, and lunacy that went into making a wacky bachelor party idea a global comic sensation. So, here are seven shocks that reveal the truth about the craziness that went behind the making of The Hangover trilogy.

Disclaimer: This article is solely the writer's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.

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7 shocking behind-the-scenes facts from The Hangover trilogy are discussed below

7. Zach Galifianakis wore a prosthetic belly in The Hangover Part III

Zach Galifianakis, who plays Alan, lost a lot of weight between Parts II and III. He lost weight after Part II, and yet the role required the familiar round face of Alan. The filmmakers resolved this by presenting a false belly in The Hangover Part III (2013).

Several interviews and on-set photographs indicate that Zach has a significantly larger tummy in Part III compared to his slimmer form in real life, although fewer sources specifically highlight this. This means a prosthetic belly (or fat suit) is used. The artificial stomach was used to make Alan's appearance uniform and funny, to maintain his clumsy appeal. The belly became a visual joke, particularly in instances where Alan's rotundity was employed in stunt, combat, and physical comedy sequences.

The directors did not worry about disturbing the audience by using the prosthetic and maintaining the character's signature appearance despite the actor's weight change. The production team worked diligently to maintain the fun and flow of the chaotic scenes in The Hangover trilogy, even when one of the main actors lost significant weight. This shows how they managed to keep everything together despite the challenges.

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6. Mike Tyson was high on cocaine during filming

Mike Tyson has confessed that during the shooting of The Hangover (2009), he was “high on coke”. He told Graham Bensinger in a 2012 interview:

“I was a mess. I was overweight. I was a pig, high on cocaine. I couldn’t talk. I had the cocaine talk.”

This quotation demonstrates the severity of Tyson's problems. He refers to himself as a mess and a pig as he tells it like it is, physically and mentally. “The cocaine talk” is how he mumbled slowly after taking the drug, something that his castmates picked up immediately.

His other quote was that he accepted the position just to “feed his habit of drugs.” Nevertheless, he was not mistreated by the cast and the director, Todd Phillips. Tyson noted that they “had his back” and supported him, which made him find something better in his life. The positive reception he got goaded him to divest himself of his addiction- he came back, clean and proud, to film The Hangover Part II, and he attributes the crew’s friendliness as an incentive.

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5. Ken Jeong insisted on Mr. Chow's full nudity

Ken Jeong acts as Mr. Chow in The Hangover. In the original screenplay, Chow emerges from a car trunk in pants. But Ken felt it would be funnier when he was completely naked. He described that the scene was crying out to have Mr. Chow jump out naked, a reference to a scene in Pulp Fiction. He said to director Todd Phillips, who said:

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” and promptly obtained him a nudity waiver.

Even Ken acknowledged that he feels self-conscious about his appearance, although this was a character choice rather than a personal one. People on set witnessed Ken open the trunk many times in the Las Vegas heat, which is approximately 110°F. They called the police, and the crew constructed blackout walls to conceal him. According to a GQ interviewer, a cop said:

“You keep doing it, and we’re going to shut you down.”

The scene that catapulted Ken Jeong to fame has since become one of the film's most famous moments. It demonstrated how far he would go to get laughs, how this made him famous, and how Chow became one of the trilogy's comedy highlights.

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4. The studio debated using a real Taser on actors

There is a scene in The Hangover where the friends of the bridegroom become volunteers in a police taser demonstration, after stealing a squad car. Director Todd Phillips even wanted the actors (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis) to be tased on camera to capture the real feel. Actually, such acts are sometimes used in movies to elicit genuine reactions.

However, the lawyers of Warner Bros. intervened before the filming began. The safety and legal aspects of the situation led to the abandonment of the taser idea at the last minute. Instead, the scene employs clever camera angles and sound effects, but no actual shocks.

This near miss reveals how far the crew was willing to go to capture genuine feelings and amusing occurrences. It also shows that even big-budget comedies take calculated risks before studio evaluation. These audacious preparations give the scenario a realistic appearance, even if the tasing never took place. It demonstrates the boldness of The Hangover's production, which teeters on the brink of actual peril for sincere laughs.

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3. Ed Helms really removed his fake tooth for The Hangover

Ed Helms's character, Stu Price, in The Hangover is famous for waking up without his front teeth. They are unaware that it was real. Helms underwent a dental implant because one of his teeth failed to develop, and in the film, he even had the implant ripped out. He explained:

“I have an implant. An adult tooth never came in and when I was 16, they did a permanent implant.”

The production crew experimented with prosthetics and even painted the teeth black, but it didn't seem realistic on camera. Thus, Helms had his dentist remove the implant's crown and unscrew the post. He even had a temporary gum-colored bit put in to protect the hole whilst filming lasted for the three months. The extraction of the crown led to a massive opening, which the dentist sealed to safeguard Helms.

Helms sounded inebriated throughout the filming because he had to use a slur and a false teeth retainer to work on The Office TV show. Such a drastic measure demonstrates the extent to which he was devoted to physical realism. He even put his comfort aside and changed his dialogue to reflect his determination to make sure that the tooth gag in The Hangover would never be forgotten.

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2. Massive uncredited rewrite introduced key elements

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote the original The Hangover script based on a true story of a wild bachelor party. However, that script was altered by writer Jeremy Garelick and director Todd Phillips. The key scenes were reshot by Garelick, who added memorable elements like Mike Tyson and his tiger, the mischievous infant, and even the stolen police vehicle. Phillips and Garelick did much to incorporate these large comedic surprises. They questioned, as Todd afterward put it:

“How are we gonna do this?” then threw in the tiger and baby story lines.

Although Phillips and Garelick developed most of the final story, guild laws meant that Lucas and Moore were the only ones remaining to obtain writing credit. That suggested that despite playing important beats, Garelick did not receive official credit.

These rewrites lent the film its surprising, larger-than-life vitality. The Hangover would be less bizarre and memorable if Tiger-Mike Tyson, the baby storyline, and the cruiser-gone-wild episode had not been included. This hidden rewrite reveals how the finished picture evolved into the wild blockbuster we know today. This happened due to the last-minute screenplay revisions that transformed the story from amusing to completely mad.

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1. A real bachelor party blackout inspired the story

The Hangover was based on a true story told by the producer, Tripp Vinson. Vinson recalled his 2002 Vegas bachelor party and said:

“I remember being a drunken fool… I blacked out. And when I was revived, I was in a strip club being threatened with a very, very large bill I was supposed to pay.”

This quote reveals that he indeed lost control and could not remember the night, only to wake up in frightening circumstances. Chris Bender listened to that story and transformed it into a movie concept.

A story about pals who wake up without remembering and have to find their lost groom was then written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. That true story served as the foundation for The Hangover, which infused natural disorder and anxiety into its crazy comedy plot to make the laughs appear realistic.

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It is concluded that behind-the-scenes tales of The Hangover revealed that its making was as mad and unpredictable as it can be. The staff and actors took risks, performed physical humor, and even put aside their personal issues. All the details, real or re-created, contributed to the creation of the hilarious mess that fans fell in love with. These little-known facts proved that the trilogy was not all comedy but pure dedication behind each laugh.