danefergus: 'Five-Year Engagement' Cast Reveals How They Keep Composure

Friday, 27 April 2012

'Five-Year Engagement' Cast Reveals How They Keep Composure

Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and Alison Brie share with MTV News cures for avoiding on-set laughter: 'I just think of really dark, morbid stuff.'
By Kara Warner

Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Chris Pratt and Alison Brie in "The Five-Year Engagement"
Photo: Universal Pictures

Whenever a movie features a very talented cast of actors who are also great comedians, it's easy to assume that many laughs and bloopers occurred during filming. Take the upcoming romantic comedy "Five-Year Engagement" for example, which boasts the very funny ensemble of writer/actor Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Alison Brie ("Community") and Chris Pratt ("Parks and Recreation") to name a few.

When MTV News sat down with the cast to talk about the film recently, we asked how they keep their cool to avoid ruining a scene when a castmember does something particularly amusing.

"I have a lot of experience trying not to break on the set of 'Community' working with a lot of funny people," Alison Brie explained. "I consider it a personal challenge when working with Ken Jeong to not break in scenes with him, and he's ridiculously funny, so I had that under my belt."

Regarding her methods for maintaining a straight face, Brie said, "I just stay in character — professional! Look, I just think of really dark, morbid stuff. I don't want to tell you; it's going to make you depressed."

Segel revealed he learned his lesson early in his career: "I'm terrified of breaking, because Judd Apatow screamed at me once when I was very young on 'Freaks and Geeks.' I was laughing, and I was young, and looking back, he was just trying to scare me, but he said, 'Every time you break, it costs me thousands of dollars!' And since then, I'm terrified of breaking."

Blunt blames "nervous energy" for her on-set laughter. "I laugh at everything," she shared. "I found myself laughing at my grandfather's funeral because I had that nervous energy, and you don't know how to cope. I think the more pressure I'm under from the cast and crew not to laugh, the better I do."

Check out everything we've got on "Five-Year Engagement."

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