Exclusive: 'Shotgun Wedding' Star Josh Duhamel Recalls His 'Almost Catastrophic' Wedding Day

OK, but were there pirates?

Josh Duhamel's wedding to Audra Mari wasn't taken hostage by pirates like his and Jennifer Lopez's in Shotgun Wedding, but it was "almost catastrophic."

The Safe Haven actor "tried to do some crazy dance move" in a party bus following their rehearsal dinner, and ended up injuring himself. Recalling the morning of his wedding, Duhamel told Parade.com that he "literally could not get out of bed."

Thankfully, the Life as We Know It star was able to walk down the aisle after being shot "up with something" at the hospital. "I almost needed a walker to walk down the aisle, but I was fine the whole day and then the next morning after the wedding, I couldn't get out of bed again," he shared.

While Duhamel married his wife, Mari, in North Dakota last year, his and Lopez's Shotgun Wedding characters, Tom and Darcy, opted for a wedding in the Philippines. Say, "I do" to the action rom-com, which is being released Jan. 27 on Prime Video.

"It did everything we hoped it would. It was meant to be just a big fun, almost feels like a throwback action comedy romantic type thing," Duhamel said of the film. "It was made for what movies were meant for and it was just to go have fun, and I think that that's what [director] Jason Moore did a great job of achieving here."

Continue reading to find out what Josh Duhamel had to say about Jennifer Coolidge, who plays his mom in Shotgun Wedding, and whether he was a real-life groomzilla.

What was it like working on this project and, of course, with Jennifer Lopez?

You couldn't ask for a more eclectic group of people, from Cheech Marin to Jennifer Coolidge to Steve Coulter to you name it. I mean, D'Arcy Carden... Lenny [Kravitz]. It was just a real mishmash of different personalities, which I think is what weddings kind of do. And what I find always so awesomely awkward about weddings is that you've got this family from wherever, you got this family from here, most of them haven't met and you put them all together and what happens, fireworks ensue or not. But in this case, you know, we had a chance to sort of explore all that stuff. And not only what the cast brought to it, but, you know, what the pirates brought to it and sort of forced these two people to examine if they're even meant to be married. Look at things about themselves that maybe they need to work on, you know.

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How was it having Jennifer Coolidge play your mom? She was hilarious in the film.

She's such a scene-stealer, isn't she? She's so good. I watched it the other night and I was like "Goddamnit, how does she do that?" She's just so good. And she's so weirdly, beautifully awkward, you know, and I love that she does that even on set you're like, "Did she mean to do that?" Could never tell if it was like planned or [if] she just sort of like lets it fly and whatever comes out comes out, but it always seems to work. She has such a specific sensibility about her comedy, and it's so fun to watch, and she's such a fun person to have around too.

By the way, she's [11] years older than me, so there's no way she could actually be my mother. She's far too young to be my mother, but I'm totally okay with it.

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Did she have you guys in stitches on set, cracking up?

Yeah, but she's much more reserved and shy than you'd think ... I mean, she's totally engaging and interested in what you're talking about. She's more of an observer than she is sort of an outgoing personality in a group. You know, she kind of sits back and listens and observes and reacts to whatever, but yeah, she didn't do a lot of crazy stuff on set that I can remember. Other than what she did on camera.

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Well, you and Jennifer Lopez did some crazy things in the movie. There are a lot of wild stunts. Were any of the ones that we saw in the film done by you guys?

Yes, we did the zip-lining. They wouldn't let us do the parasailing. That would have been fun though. I've never done that.

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How was the zip-lining?

Oh, great. I went and did it a few days before we shot it just cause I wanted to go do it. But yeah. You do what they let you do—you do basically what the insurance company will let you do. I don't know how Tom Cruise gets away with the stuff that he does. There must be some crazy insurance bonding thing that they're able to do. I don't know. I don't know how he's been able to pull that off. But part of the fun of making movies is doing the stunts, and so I still try to do whatever I can.

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When you're working on a movie with musical icons like J.Lo and Lenny Kravitz, is there any singing on set?

Oh yeah, lots of it. There was one time when Jennifer was late to set for some reason. I think she had something personal that she was dealing with off-set or something, and she came on and as a way to sort of lift the mood, we had a musical director on set at the time to help us all sing the Edwin McCain song, so he's like "Okay, everybody before she gets out here, we're all gonna start singing ['If You Had My Love']."

We had the whole cast singing that song as she walked on and she just like literally lit up. It was so sweet. Truly, an amazing group of people in this cast. The crew was amazing too. This cast, because I think they lived together. They ended up renting out this giant mansion of a house from some lady who lived in the neighborhood and she had like 15 bedrooms in it, and so the production rented that, and every night they would get together and have wine and eat an amazing dinner, and they had a gym in the place. Pool. It was almost like a dorm, but not because it was so beautiful. I didn't get to stay there, and I was a little bit jealous about that, especially when I went over to have dinner with them... I was like, "Why aren't I staying here?" I think they wanted to keep me away so I'd stay focused or something, but man, they became very tight and you could tell just by when you were working with them that these people had spent a lot of really fun time together.

Was there something in the water because both you and Jen got engaged and married last year. Were you a groomzilla like Tom?

No. No, no, no. I was not groomzilla. In fact, I was kind of the opposite. My wife [Audra Mari] did an amazing job planning most of the wedding. I was working during most of it ... She was like "What do you think about this and what do you think about this?" I'd be like "That, or whatever you want." So basically, she got to kind of do what she wanted to. I was more interested in the music and the party afterwards, and I let her sort of design all the rest of it, and I just sort of helped with the entertainment side of it at the end, because to me a good wedding always has a great party afterwards. I couldn't care less about what flowers we have or what, you know, what the arrangements look like. I just want people to have a good time.

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Hopefully your wedding day went a lot smoother than Tom and Darcy's.

It did. Although, I don't know. It was almost catastrophic because I couldn't get out of bed the morning of the wedding because the night before we had a great band at the rehearsal dinner. And everyone was dancing and we had this party bus afterward, and I tried to do some crazy dance moves in the bus and threw my back out. Literally could not get out of bed. I'd get up and my legs would give out the next morning. I did something to it.

So, they took me to the hospital, shot me up with something, and I felt great the whole day. I was able to walk down the aisle. I almost needed a walker to walk down the aisle, but I was fine the whole day and then the next morning after the wedding, I couldn't get out of bed again. I was completely disabled. I couldn't get up. I couldn't walk, so they had to take me back to the hospital in a wheelchair and shoot me up again, and then slowly over two months it finally came back.

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Oh my gosh. Well, at least you made it down the aisle.

I did! I was able to walk down the aisle on my wedding day. It was touch and go there for a minute.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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