What was it like to film that wild massage scene in 'Mike and Dave Need Wedding...

[massage]

Sugar Lyn Beard, left, as Jeanie Stangle, with Anna Kendrick playing Alice. (Gemma LaMana)

You’re probably going to be hearing the name Sugar Lyn Beard a lot more soon. The actress’s breakout performance in the raunchy comedy “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” is impressively outlandish. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s teaming up with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to work on a TV series.

Beard, who’s best known — to Canadians, anyway — for hosting a children’s show in her native country, makes an impression as Jeanie Stangle, the much-loved sister of titular brothers Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave (Zac Efron). Those two man-children need dates for Jeanie’s destination wedding in Hawaii, because it’s the only way they’ll behave. Or so their sister thinks.

Things don’t go according to plan, of course. For one thing, early in the weekend, Jeanie gets leveled by an airborne ATV. (Don’t worry, she survives, though she’s a little worse for wear.) “You look like Burn Victim Barbie,” one of her brothers tells her. Then there’s the bit where she tries ecstasy for the first time at her rehearsal dinner and ends up completely naked (revealing conspicuously au naturel grooming habits), standing amidst a swirl of horses.

[Review: “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" is a stupid — and funny — raunch-fest]

But the most memorable moment comes when Jeanie gets a massage from a very unorthodox professional, played by “Silicon Valley’s” Kumail Nanjiani, who does his job naked while covered in oil. Not only does he take the time to manipulate her aura, but he also does some deep-tissue work on her derriere. Using his own. While hanging from ribbons attached to the ceiling.

You might have to see it to understand.

Beard took it all in stride, though, and she’s more than happy to answer questions about shooting that scene, as well as the movie in general. (And yes, her voice really is that adorably high-pitched.)

Did you audition for it or were you approached?

I definitely auditioned for it. . . . I knew it was magic because as soon as I read [the scene], I knew all of her words. I just knew her so quickly. And so when I got to the audition with the casting director, we had so much fun. And by the end of my first session, the casting director was like, “I want to bring you back for [director] Jake [Szymanski] this afternoon.” So I sat in my car, for maybe two and a half hours, waiting for my next audition.

You just sat there?

I did go to McDonald’s and had a triple cheeseburger with McNuggets on the side, celebrating my first audition. And I went in for Jake and whatever magic we had found in the first audition, it was just quadrupled. And Jake was so generous. I like to tell this story about my knees, because there’s the scene where I’m so high and in the audition scenes I’m like, “Be free, my friends!” talking to the horses. And I drop to my knees and I thank Alice [Anna Kendrick’s character] for opening my eyes. So in the audition, I was so into it, and being so high, I threw myself on my knees. Then I stood up when I was done and my knees were bleeding. I still have scars.

So they knew you were committed.

I was so in character, I bled Jeanie’s blood that day.

I’d love to hear about shooting the massage scene. How much of that was scripted? What was that like?

Well, I met Kumail that very day. I think we briefly ran into each other at the hotel the night before, but I saw him that morning and we were both kind of like, “Okay, our butts are going to touch.”

He’s so professional and so kind. Everything we had done up to that point had been so funny, but I had kept it together. I didn’t break too much up until that point. But as soon as Kumail had his naked body floating above me, he just [improvised] some of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. And I allowed myself that day to really let go. So there’s a lot in the movie that made it in where my body is convulsing, which is coming across as orgasmic, but the truth is I was laughing. I was under there just laughing my head off.

Everyone keeps asking me, was he really naked up there? But the truth is he has like, um, there’s got to be a technical term for this that I need to look up, but it’s like a stick-and-berries bag, we’ll call it, where they shove his junk into a bag and tighten it up. But there was so much movement — and the ribbons and he was floating and it was hot and we were sweating — so the bag would start to slip off. And he kept stopping and being so polite and having them coming in to fix it. And me, I’m like a hippie Canadian, and I was like, “Just let him go!”

The other thing I’ll say about that scene, and this speaks so highly of the studio, but it was a long day and my face was in that hole and it was intense. It was so intense, in fact, that the studio called me at the end of the day and let me know they were going to treat me to an actual massage to make up for it.

How long were you shooting that scene?

It wasn’t the full day, but it was maybe three-fourths of the day.

And since you were face down in that scene, could you really tell what was happening?

It was a bit of a mystery. I mean, I could feel certain things at certain times. You know, you get startled when there’s a butt suddenly on your butt, but they did let me know what was coming up. But to see it in the movie, it’s even wilder than I could have imagined, for sure.

What was it like offscreen? Was it a prankster kind of set?

We were in Hawaii, in the middle of the jungle, and on the weekends we spent all of our time together. So we were jumping off cliffs and going on these epic hikes and swimming in the ocean; we took surfing lessons together. There’s the classic picture of Zac [Efron] swimming with the shark. I’m sure you’ve heard that story. We just didn’t separate. The Stangle family continued after shooting.

As far as the pranks go, the biggest prank was done by me and I got in trouble for it. I had my f—ed-up face [from the ATV accident] through the movie, so I had all that incredible makeup on. So there was one day, it was my first day of shooting with the incredible makeup — and it looked perfect and it looked real — and I thought it would be funny if I wandered through the hotel and scared hotel guests.

Oh no.

I know! It was coming from a good place.

What was the reaction?

It wasn’t good. People were in a state of emergency trying to rush me to find a doctor. And I was very quick to tell them it was movie makeup, but a few of them, I didn’t tell them soon enough, I guess, and there was a complaint, and one of the studio heads had to call me. It was mortifying. I, of course, was devastated, because this was such a huge deal for me and I was so happy and so grateful, and I was like: I’m just trying to have fun!

Well, that’s a great compliment for the makeup artist at least.

That’s true!

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