Ed Helms Questions Whether the Monkey in ‘The Hangover Part II’ Was Really Trained: ‘It Was Bizarre’
It’s not often that an animal steals the spotlight from the likes of Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms in a Blockbuster comedy. But in the case of The Hangover Part II, Crystal the monkey came close.
Crystal has a credit sheet longer than some Hollywood A-listers and commands a paycheck like one, too. However, while some stars who have worked with Crystal seem enamored with the monkey, others, like Ed Helms, seem less impressed. In fact, Helms joked he’s not sure if Crystal’s acting skills are pure talent or rather luck.
In ‘The Hangover Part II,’ Crystal the monkey plays a drug mule
The Hangover Part II premiered in 2011 and became the largest box office hit for a comedy. The sequel followed Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug (Justin Bartha) to Thailand, where Stu’s pre-wedding brunch — intended to be a tame affair — quickly goes awry. Over the course of the movie, fans are also reunited with Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong).
Crystal the monkey appears on the scene in a sketchy hotel room, where Stu, Phil, and Alan wake up with no memory of what happened the previous night. It soon becomes clear that the denim-vest-wearing, chainsmoking primate is a pretty serious drug mule. To say Crystal adds some chaos to the hijinks in store for the gang is an understatement.
Ed Helms was skeptical of Crystal’s acting talents; Bradley Cooper was a fan
Though Crystal the monkey shares the screen with Helms and the rest of the cast fairly frequently in the second installment of the Hangover franchise, Helms remained skeptical of the primate when he reminisced about filming the movie on The Graham Norton Show.
“I couldn’t tell if she was really that well trained,” the former The Office star recalled. The actor said the monkey’s trainer, Thomas Gunderson, would tell Crystal to jump up on the table — or anything else — repeatedly. “Eventually, the monkey would just sort of infer from his energy that it’s probably what he wanted [her] to do,” Helms smirked.
Though Crystal stole the scene more than once, Helms joked he wasn’t so sure about the monkey’s inherent acting talent. “There was no indication that she was trained. She just had some facility with the English language. It was bizarre,” Helms said.
Though Helms might be skeptical of Crystal’s skills, Cooper was more complimentary, calling her “phenomenal” when Norton introduced the clip of the car chase through Bangkok when the Hangover Part II crew recovers the monkey.
Crystal the monkey has appeared in other Hollywood productions besides ‘The Hangover Part II’
Cooper might have been more receptive to Crystal because he was familiar with the monkey. They had also shared the screen for the 2006 romantic comedy Failure to Launch, co-starring Sarah Jessica Parker.
But that was far from the primate’s first feature film. She first appeared in George of the Jungle in 1997. According to IMDb, her breakthrough came while starring in Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. Crystal starred in the sequel, along with later films such as We Bought a Zoo.
The monkey also had recurring appearances in the TV series Community — working multiple times with Jeong — and starred in NBC’s Animal Practice. On the latter show, she earned a reported $12,000 per episode, according to IMDb, and was compensated similarly for her appearances on Community.
