5 Secrets To Spy’s Success

3) Stack The Cast With Concealed Weapons

It’s one thing to simply hire a bunch of talented actors to backup your star. It’s another to know how to use them well, especially in a comedy. Rose Byrne’s comic chops have been proven since at least Bridesmaid’s (and, sure enough, she’s absolutely hilarious in Spy), but the rest of the cast doesn’t immediately read like a slam dunk. Miranda Hart is mostly an unknown to American audiences, Jason Statham hasn’t done a supporting comedy role in over a decade, and asking Jude Law to do an American accent is like shaving Samson.

The risks pay off brilliantly: Law’s performance is all the funnier for looking like a British superspy while sounding like a smug American, and learning how many tools are in Hart’s comic belt makes many of her scenes a delightful surprise. It’s Statham who’s the real revelation here, though, playing an absurd meathead as he often does, just with his petard permanently stuck in the “hoisted” position. More than just writing to the strengths of the actors comically, Feig’s script takes the time to make the characters silly but important to the story in their own unique ways. That we end up liking all of these characters, be they dolts, douches, or bad girls, makes Spy as generous as it often is crude.