Rose Byrne fights for killer 'Spy' laughs

LAS VEGAS — Rose Byrne might play Bulgarian billionaire arms dealer Rayna Boyanov in Spy, but shooting the raunchy comedy was far from glamorous.

During one outrageous scene, Rayna finds herself stuck between the bodies of her assassinated bodyguards on a wild private jet ride. It required Byrne to work on a boiling summer set in Hungary with two very sweaty stuntmen for hours.

Byrne can laugh about it, now that she's poolside at Caesars Palace in Vegas, where the star was promoting the movie (opening Friday) to theater owners during their CinemaCon convention.

"(The stuntmen) were dripping with sweat. And their faces just seemed to say, 'I'm so sorry,' " says Byrne. "You might think that this is not what I signed up for. But then you just sort of go to a place where you can cope.

"It's funny what you will do for a laugh," she adds. "Even if you say, 'I'm not going to do that.' Somehow, your competitiveness takes over."

Getting that laugh at all costs is what Australian actress Byrne, 35, has been shooting for in a string of hit comedies that prompted Rolling Stone to dub her "Raunch-Com's Secret Weapon."

It started with her role as Russell Brand's drunken pop-star girlfriend in 2010's Get Him to the Greek, followed by snooty Helen in Paul Feig's Bridesmaids (2011).

Byrne says she did "by far some of the raunchiest scenes I have ever done" alongside screen husband Seth Rogen in 2014's Neighbors.

Now she's back with director Feig and her Bridesmaids co-star McCarthy in Spy as the imperious Rayna, who forces McCarthy's deskbound CIA agent into the field after knocking out the agency's suave spy (Jude Law).

"I've been really lucky to be in four out of four great comedies," says Byrne.

But Feig gives props to Byrne, who disappears into each of the varied comedic characters she plays.

"The funniest people I know are the ones who just become the character that's funny. And the comedy comes out of them being real," says Feig. "And Rose is the best kind of actress who never says no."

Byrne and Feig worked hard to come up with every aspect of Rayna, from her aristocratic accent ("We wanted it to be very plummy," she says) to her wild outfits, one of which McCarthy memorably refers to on- screen as a "slutty dolphin trainer."

"We wanted it to be flashy and sort of gaudy. But in Rayna's mind, it's extremely classy," says Byrne. "It was that fine line of getting that balance. I personally have seen people like that. There is a look. It does exist."

But the most noticeable touch might be the outrageous Rayna hair, which Feig and Byrne fought for when studio executives were initially skeptical.

"They were not convinced at all that it was going to work. I had a really specific concept of this woman in my head," says Byrne. "She's that Eastern European-mixed-with-royalty sort of thing. So it's a bit like Marie Antoinette meets Olga or something. I wanted to really tap into that."

Winning that battle had its comedic costs, which Byrne was more than willing to pay. She split one pair of super-tight leopard-print pants on the set, and the hairpiece was a positive beast.

"It was moving a lot. It would sort of start at one spot and by the end of the day, it had gone back there or over here," says Byrne. "She needs her own (screen) credit, that hair."