'Spy' Costar Rose Byrne Is a Comic Genius: 5 Clips That Prove It

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in ‘Neighbors’

Spy, the comedy that topped the box office this weekend, is an excellent showcase for star Melissa McCarthy. But the movie doesn’t succeed on McCarthy alone. One of Spy’s best performances comes from Rose Byrne, who plays a bratty Bulgarian arms dealer with both the sophistication of a Bond villain and the goofiness of a Saturday Night Live character. Byrne doesn’t seem to have gotten her due as a comedian, maybe because she’s often part of such talented ensembles. But she’s terrifically funny, bringing laughs and surprising complexity to characters ranging from Neighbors’ desperate new mother to Get Him to the Greek’s debaucherous pop star. Here are five clips from recent films that prove Byrne is a secret comedy powerhouse. (Warning: There’s some NSFW language.)

Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Byrne’s breakout comedy role was Jackie Q, the vacuous pop-star girlfriend of Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) in Nicholas Stoller’s Get Him to the Greek. Many an actor has been steamrolled by Brand’s whirling-dervish energy, but Byrne holds her own, radiating the calm, oblivious indifference of a woman who loves herself above all things. And her line delivery is priceless; watch how she tells Brand she’s had “just a few drinks” in the clip above. One look at Byrne’s audition tape (watch it here) makes it clear why Stoller cast her: Her screen test is a hilarious tour de force of drunken rage, during which she slaps herself in the face and mimes having sex with a Buddha statue. Then she starts improvising with Brand (off-camera) and the character of Jackie Q emerges.

Bridesmaids (2011)

At first, Rose Byrne appears to be playing the straight woman in Bridesmaids. Helen, the too-perfect bridesmaid who gets between Annie (Kristen Wiig) and her longtime best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph), is a woman with great taste and no sense of humor. But there are wonderful comic touches throughout, like the subtly diva-ish way Helen steals the mic from Annie during their engagement-party toast. Helen finally gains the audience’s sympathy when she breaks down crying in Annie’s car, above, and the character quickly transforms from hate-able to hilarious. The outtakes from this scene, featured on the DVD, are even funnier, as Byrne sobs about all of her obscure flaws (“I’m half-dyslexic!”).

I Give It a Year (2013)

This British rom-com is a bit of a one-joke pony, but it shows off Byrne’s ability to play a leading lady with a sly comedic edge. Byrne plays Nat, who is having second thoughts about her hasty marriage to Josh (Rafe Spall) on their first anniversary. You can stream the full movie on Netflix, or if you don’t care about spoilers, watch one of Byrne’s best scenes above — a clever reversal of a romantic comedy cliché.

Neighbors (2014)

Seth Rogen and Zac Efron got all the press, but Byrne was the true spark in the hit comedy Neighbors, about young parents (Byrne and Rogen) who decide to take down the fraternity next door. Speaking in her real Australian accent for a change, Byrne plays a woman who loves her family, but who is not about to go quietly into domesticity. “Now we’re gonna go to Mommy and Me, to see all those bitches that I hate,” she sings sweetly to her baby as she puts her in the car. At turns sweet, sexy, ferocious, and exhausted, Byrne’s character Kelly is one of the funniest, most authentic new moms ever seen onscreen. In the scene above, she and her husband attempt to keep their cool in front of their college-age neighbors, but Kelly flubs her delivery. Watch the blooper reel to hear the cast and crew crack up when she yells “Keep it down!”

Spy (2015)

Byrne reunites with her Bridesmaids co-star McCarthy in Spy, playing the evil, elegant arms dealer Rayna Boyanov. Though Byrne’s porcelain-doll body threatens to collapse under the weight of Rayna’s gigantic hair, her performance as the villain never becomes cartoonish. Rayna is a foul-mouthed aristocrat who finds joy in the suffering of others, but still has her own quirks, like an inability to remember names. (At one point, she calls McCarthy’s character, secret agent Susan Cooper, “Croupon.”) In the scene above, Cooper tries to charm Rayna with a toast. “What a stupid f—ing retarded toast. You’re delightful,” she replies, genuinely pleased.