Melissa McCarthy, action star and fan of wigs, declares, ‘Funny is funny’

How Melissa McCarthy’s character looks in a movie is incredibly important to the actress, but she’s happy that women no longer have to “look crazy” to be considered funny.

That said, “I’m the idiot that’s like, ‘Could I look even worse, please?,’” she joked in a recent video interview for People. Yup, she asked to wear that dowdy gray-perm wig in “Spy.”

Wigs and hairstyles are her pathway into her characters, the 44-year-old mother of two told the magazine, with a trip to a wig store to “try on a million things” coming almost immediately after she reads a new script.

McCarthy said wigs and makeup and costumes “completely transform” her -- though she’s not necessarily transformed into the old-school, Phyllis Diller type of funny-looking funny lady.

“I just think that we’ve gotten rid of, luckily, a lot of those guidelines,” she said, noting that actions and personality earn laughs. “Funny is funny, and it can come in 8 billion different shades and flavors, so I think it’s silly to kind of limit it.”

In “Spy,” McCarthy without limits meant finding her way as a budding action star as well as a comedic actress.

“Jason Statham was literally crawling up my body like a ladder,” she said of a scene where the costars are dangling from a helicopter. “And I was like, ‘What am I doing and how did I get here? And how delightful is this?’”

“Spy” led the box office this past weekend, taking in an estimated $30 million domestically; worldwide, the $65-million comedy has taken in $86.5 million, according to Company Town.

Delightful indeed.

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