“Part of my brain was like, ‘Wow, I could die right now,’” Andre told USA Today. “Another part of my brain goes, ‘This is going to be great footage.’ I felt the movie needed a couple of death-defying scenes to give it real stakes. To make it feel raw and intense.”
The knife incident resulted in Howery temporarily quitting “Bad Trip.” Andre explained: “He walked from the movie, we had to seduce him back.” Howery eventually rejoined the production and brought Tiffany Haddish along with him to costar. Per USA Today, “Bad Trip” director Kitao Sakurai “beefed up the security team” working on the film with ex-law enforcement officials after the knife incident. Andre even came up with the safe word “popcorn” to say over his hidden microphone to notify the crew of a potentially threatening situation. “It’s such a stressful process because it’s the real world,” Sakurai said. “The benefits of doing something like this are also the dangers of it. Things are unpredictable. You’re working in a crowd with people that don’t even know they’re on camera. Really anything can happen.” During one prank where Andre plays drunk at a bar, one patron snapped at the comedian. “The guy did not think that was funny at all,” Andre said. “But instead of saying ‘popcorn!’ I started saying ‘goosebumps, goosebumps!’ My security was like, ‘Are you saying it’s cold in here?’ And then I was like, ‘popcorn, popcorn!’” “Bad Trip” is now streaming on Netflix. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
