Emmy Nominee Melissa McCarthy on Her Audition for 'Bridesmaids'

GQ's annual summer "Comedy Issue" has been available for a couple of weeks now, but we want to share an excerpt of their interview with Bridesmaids scene-stealer Melissa McCarthy, director Paul Feig, writer/star Kristen Wiig, and other cast members from this year's hit comedy, illuminating how McCarthy was cast as Megan in the movie.

Read about McCarthy's audition experience, from GQ's "A Brief Oral History of Melissa McCarthy's Huge Bridesmaids Performance":

Melissa McCarthy: I read the script and had such a weird, fast reaction to Megan. I knew exactly what I wanted her to look like, to sound like, and I got an intense feeling of "I like her so much! This will never work out!" For the audition, I wore no makeup and a bad pant. Once I look like the character, it really locks me in, even if people sometimes say, "We need you not to be repulsive."

Paul Feig: We would always do an improv section during the auditions, and quickly we realized, "Holy shit, this woman is on fire." The mistake a lot of people make in casting is they get so tied to the words and the character they wrote that they don't see when somebody is better than what they have on the page. Melissa came in with this character that was just a force of nature. At first I was ike, "Is she playing it as a lesbian?" Then it got into all this weird sex stuff.

Melissa McCarthy: I love those no-bulls*** women with close-cropped hair that you'll see together and think, "Is that her partner?" Then they talk about their husbands and six kids. I just love anybody who's that comfortable in her own skin. But the whole ride home from the audition, I was thinking, "I got too weird. Should I turn the car around and do that cheesy actor thing of 'I can do it better! Give me another shot!' "...

Paul Feig: Let any debate about "women aren't funny" be put to rest. I would do anything with her, and she's got such range that she kind of can do anything. The worst thing you could do, if you had a Melissa McCarthy in your employ, would be, "Can you just stick to the script?" But that happens a lot. Why the f*** would you ever do that?

McCarthy has also been nominated this year for an Emmy Award for Best Acress in a Comedy Series for her lead role in the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly -- because she is very funny and certainly deserved the nod, but maybe Emmy voters were also swayed by the buzz from her unforgettable performance in Bridesmaids.

To hear more about how McCarthy got into character for Bridesmaids, read the full roundtable interview with McCarthy, Feig, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolf, and others from the film at GQ.com.

-- Daniel Lehman