The Spa Weekend Cast “Couldn’t Believe” They Got To Make This Comedy

Making Spa Weekend might have been work, but for stars Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann, Michelle Buteau, and Anna Faris, it was a kind of real-life refresh, too.

“I couldn't believe that we were able to make it. Truly,” Faris tells Bustle. “Even as we were getting closer and closer to what we were told was the start date. I was like, Oh my God, they’re gonna make that!” While the actor said she’s previously been part of films where she feels like a “bounce card for the male,” her character, Sophie, gets to be more of a “reactor,” as she is in real life.

Buteau compares her all-star castmates to Jennifer Lopez and Shakira at the Super Bowl, explaining: “I was like, ‘I’m sorry, Leslie, Anna, Isla. It’s too much good. This is amazing.”

In theaters Aug. 21, the film follows a group of longtime best friends who go on a much-needed spa retreat that gets a little messier than they planned. But of course, that kind of chaos is exactly the point.

As Fisher explains, “I try to make movies that I want to see. I loved Bad Moms.” (Spa Weekend writer-director team Jon Lucas and Scott Moore helmed that film and its sequel with producer Suzanne Todd, who they re-team with here.) “I love female-driven comedies. Loved Bridesmaids. I love everything on Netflix that has a row of ladies. I’m gonna watch it. I’m there for it. So it’s fun to do something that you want to see, and you have an appetite for because it means that you are tapped into the audience.”

Indeed, Lucas is passionate about making the kind of hilariously quotable crowd-pleasers he says have been missing from the theatrical landscape lately and hopes Spa Weekend can be that for people.

“We’re just really trying to hold on to this, because we grew up watching these movies,” he says of his fellow filmmakers, Moore and Todd. “I love these big silly comedies. You go with your friends ... you watch them over and over again. You share the jokes. You remember the lines. Those are the movies we love, and we’re trying to keep this tradition going, even though not a lot of people — the exception of [production company] Black Bear — seem to want to make them.”