Chris O'Dowd joins the Apatow IT crowd

There’s a scene in Bridesmaids, the new comedy written by and starring SNL alumna Kristen Wiig, that everyone’s talking about. It involves six women, including Wiig’s character Annie, the maid of honour to her BFF Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Annie has organised a dress fitting for Lillian and her bridesmaids at an exclusive bridal shop, an immaculate palace of white walls, cream carpets and very expensive wedding apparel. Unfortunately, before the dress fittings Annie treated the girls to some authentic Brazilian cuisine at a restaurant in a rough part of town – the kind of place that terrifies the local cat population and where the kitchen sink is likely to double-up as a urinal. The resulting dress fitting is, shall we say, explosive.

If I were to choose a scene that was deserving of more attention, however, it would be the one where Annie has just spent the night with Nathan, a highway patrol officer with puppy-dog eyes and a charming Irish brogue, played by Chris O’Dowd. In the morning Annie wakes up in Nathan’s bed. It’s an alien experience as her current boyfriend / fuck-buddy, Ted (a deliciously smug Jon Hamm), sends her on the walk of shame after their vigorous but pleasureless sex-sessions. When Nathan asks her to spend the morning with him, Annie, not used to being treated as anything other than a door mat, runs for the hills. It’s a scene of toe-curling awkwardness and heartfelt pain, and with it O’Dowd, best known as slobbish office drone Roy in The IT Crowd, steals the film and melts a few hearts.

I spoke to the Irishman ahead of Bridesmaids’ UK release to talk about producer Judd Apatow’s impact on the American comedy landscape, Hollywood’s new found love of actors from across the pond and masturbating stalkers.

In the last few years there has been a wave of actors from these parts breaking into Hollywood – it seems like the perfect time for you to do the same?

I suppose it is. There are a lot of British actors doing really well, and a bunch of Irish actors. It's nice because it does have a snowball effect: suddenly we can be trusted to not nick stuff, and also to do okay in films.

Not only is it a great time for actors from the British Isles, it seems like a great time for comedy in general. Judd Apatow has completely changed the American comedy landscape.

I think he really has. For a long time there was a certain kind of comedy happening: it was a lot of Farrelly Brothers kind of stuff, which is really funny, but at the same time it didn't really connect with me in any way. So when Judd started that kind of truthful comedy – bromance or whatever you want to call it – it was great. They're films that people can relate to, about actual relationships. It's a kind of British sensibility, in a way. If you look at the relationships in a lot of British comedies, they are often very real, particularly in the last decade. So thanks, Judd.

Did you have to adapt to a different comedy beat for Bridesmaids?

To be perfectly honest I think that American comedy is as much aligned to Irish comedy as Irish comedy is to British. British comedy can be, sometimes, a little bit uptight, and there isn't really that in Irish comedic circles.

Take something like Knocked Up or Superbad: I just fucking love those films – that's exactly what I think is funny. You can be worried about whether you're not going to be funny enough, but not necessarily whether they're going to get you or not, if that makes sense. I knew I was playing the right game. I'd turned up with the right racket. I hadn't turned up to a tennis court with a badminton racket.

How did you get involved in the game, then?

I stole the racket – from an old guy in the street trying to bat flies, and just ran with it [laughs]... I got the job, really, because of Paul Feig, who's the director of the film. He had been a big fan of The IT Crowd, so when I auditioned I kind of knew that people in the room were aware of me, even if most of them were staring at me blankly wondering why I was talking in a weird accent.

Let’s talk about the accent – was your character, police officer Nathan Rhodes, always going to be Irish?

No it was never written like that. I went in like everyone else. There were a bunch of American guys who auditioned too, and I auditioned in an American accent, and it went fine, but because Paul had seen me in other things he suggested that I try it in my own accent just for fun, and I did it and it kind of worked. And it's a fucking lovely accent. It's the same in Scotland, it's a charming fucking accent, you know?

And did it charm Kirsten?

I don't know if she was charmed or not, but we got on very well. She's a very cool woman, very funny – they were all really welcoming, and inclusive. She would try the accent a lot. Which was embarrassing, not only for me, but, like, every dead relative. But the fact that she tried says it all.

There’s a real comedic chemistry between you both, too. All your scenes seemed really natural. Were they improvised?

We improvised a lot, but in a way that we don't really do here in this country: we start with the script, and the script was really strong, and then do a load of improvising, and then we do the script again. I'm a big fan of improvising, and all that, but I love great scripts even more so. So if there's a good script there – which isn't always the case – then use it.

And that script was written by two women [Wiig and her regular writing partner, Annie Mumolo]. What did you make of all the ‘can women write comedy?’ debates that were sparked by the film?

I was very aware that that whole debate was happening in America when I was over there for the film opening. I found it bizarre. I found that the people were talking about it like we were honestly saying, 'can cats write?'. I mean of course women can write comedy. This is the main difference: they write women better than men write women. And that's kind of it. They're as funny, if not funnier. And they probably write relationships a bit better. That for me is as simple as it is. 

How’s the attention been from the US media, being on American chat shows and getting recognised in the street?

It's weird, to tell you the truth. But I've been lucky in that it's all happened gradually. This is a big spurt forward, career-wise, but it has all happened very gradually. I don't know what it would be like if I was 21 and it just kind of happened like that. And it's easy because people are so fucking nice. I always find it weird when celebrities go all, "Oh it's awful, I get people coming up to me on the street." People just come up and tell you that they like you.

So you'd be happy to have a stalker?

I could really do with one or two more stalkers in my life for those mornings when I'm feeling a bit down. On those days I want to see someone wanking on my window. Men or women, I don't care. Is that too much to ask?