We were shooting in open-carry states, where people were armed. So it was definitely stressful and hairy, and got pretty violent. Tiffany presented herself as an option, and she was incredible in the movie. I want to be in your movie.” I was like, What?! And just by the grace of God, the woman that was supposed to play her role had just dropped out because she had a prior obligation to her television show, so there was an opening.
She calls me five minutes later and she goes, “Dude, you almost got Rel killed doing pranks?” I go, “Yeah, I kind of want to keep that hush-hush.” Then she goes, “Hell no, that’s awesome. I don’t want to do this anymore.” She starts dying laughing. It’s very stressful this guy pulled a knife on us. He was like, “I’m doing this Eric Andre movie.
I should quit.” And then he called Tiffany Haddish, who wasn’t in the movie yet. It’s a nightmare, I shouldn’t have done this. So that was incredibly stressful.īut because of that, he was so verklempt that he called his manager and agent, and he was like, “Eric’s gonna get me killed. He looked for his gun, found his knife, chased us out with a knife, and that was the first time Rel had shot a hidden-camera prank. Rel, our first day of shooting - and the first time Rel had ever filmed a hidden-camera prank in his life - we had a knife pulled on us because we went into a hood barbershop with our penises stuck in a Chinese finger trap, and we asked the guy for scissors. They deserve all the accolades they’re getting, and then some. Sacha is incredibly brave, but she had never done prank movies. I would say that Maria Bakalova is brave. Were there times you thought you were going to die? You’re performers of color, and you don’t have the shroud of presenting as celebrities. Because on top of pulling these stunts in the American South, you’re doing them with police officers, with army men. Bad Trip is that level of bravery compounded tenfold. We’re doing this interview a couple of days after the Oscar nominations for Borat, another prank-based narrative film that’s received praise for the “bravery” of its performers, Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova.