During the interview with Josh Greenbaum, Ben Pearson notes that there were rumors circulating that another actor had auditioned for the role of Sharon Fisherman before Kristen Wiig ultimately played double duty. “I, from the get-go, wanted her to play both parts and she understandably wasn’t sure in the sense of, ‘Is it too much to take on as producer, writer, actor? Does it feel like, narcissistic in any way? Look at me,'” says Greenbaum. Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote the script before bringing it to Greenbaum, and the trio reworked the project together to bring it to the final form we all saw on screen. Wiig read the part of Sharon during this time, solidifying Greenbaum’s thought that she should be the one to play the role.
“And hearing her read that part, in my mind, I’m like, ‘No one else should be anywhere near this role,'” he says. “So the reason you may have heard that a couple of people maybe sort of read was that we were still in that process of feeling out.” Greenbaum tells Pearson that he’s “grateful that [his] theory won out,” because Wiig is absolutely phenomenal in the role.
“Her dynamic with Jamie Dornan was so funny and then when they got in the room together, once Jamie came down to Mexico City when we started filming, we did rehearsals like, ‘Yes, they’re so funny together.’ So I was really grateful that that’s how it worked out.” Despite Wiig’s fears that taking on the additional role would somehow read as narcissistic, test audiences apparently couldn’t tell that Wiig was the actor underneath the white painted skin and black bob hairdo. What a testament to her comedic brilliance.