“It was a tornado of fame and a lot of Buffett. It was so overwhelming.”
Of the three main characters in the original The Hangover movie, Ed Helms was arguably the most famous when it was released in 2009. While Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis rose to prominence with their hugely successful films, Helms was already well known for his regular appearances on “The Office” and on “The Daily Show.” It is But the film, which grossed $467 million worldwide and became the most successful R-rated comedy in history, still made Helms a household name.
In a recent episode of Conan O’Brien’s podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” Helms talked about how the “tornado of fame” that came with the success of “The Hangover” brought it to the public. Calling it a “whole new level” of scrutiny compared to his work on television.
“It was a tornado of fame and a lot of Buffett. It was so overwhelming,” Helms said on the podcast. “I was really upset a lot of the time, like in the aftermath of ‘The Hangover,’ when I was getting scripts for different kinds of projects. Like, ‘What do I do?’ I don’t know.’ I kind of spun out and was panicking about all sorts of things, like, ‘So what career do you want?'”
Helms admitted that he felt “very lucky” to have these opportunities, but that it caused “a lot of anxiety and identity-like, just confusion.”
“I will say one of the craziest things about that kind of breakthrough to fame. It’s a big loss. Take control of your environment,” he said.
Helms, Cooper, and Galifianakis went on to star in two sequels to The Hangover, released in 2011 and 2013.
“If it weren’t for those people, I don’t think I would have been sane. But we are all for each other, just to care and measure ourselves, you know, I don’t know.” “And I think we kept each other from drifting too far apart. And not too professional.”
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