Ed Helms' Tooth Was Really Missing In The Hangover

Remember the scene in The Hangover where Stu realises he's missing a tooth? Well, it turns out that the big, gaping hole in his mouth was actually real.

Sure, some actors pride themselves in being all method for their craft, but I imagine there might just be a limit.

Not for The Hangover's Ed Helms, it seems, as he was willing to yank out his very own tooth for the sake of the movie.

Okay, it wasn't his real tooth, but actually an implant he'd had put in as a teenager - but it still doesn't sound like the most ideal scenario.

"It is totally real," Helms, 45, told PEOPLE back in 2009 at the time of the film's release.

"I have an implant. An adult tooth never came in and when I was 16, they did a permanent implant."

Warner Bros

The film is set in Las Vegas, and follows a group of men on a bachelor party as they try and piece together their BNO the day before.

The groom's gone missing - though that's the least of their worries, as they've also somehow acquired both a random baby and Mike Tyson's pet tiger.

Helms' character Stu also wakes up to realise he's missing one of his teeth - meaning the actor spends the rest of the film sporting a gappy grin.

But instead of using prosthetics, CGI or other classic Hollywood techniques, Helms and his dentist decided to simply remove his fake tooth.

"We started to do different tests with prosthetics and blacking it out and nothing worked," Helms continued.

"I wasn't eager to take out my implant because my mouth is healthy, but I talked to my dentist and he was like, 'Yeah we can do it!'

"My dentist was really into it."

PA

Helms' dentist apparently had to break the crown off and unscrew the post from the implant, leaving a huge hole in the gum. Because the area has to stay healthy (y'know, given that there's no tooth there or anything), the dentist then screwed in a piece that matched his gum tissue.

Helms went without his tooth for three months while they shot the film, before eventually getting a fresh new implant once they were done.

Now that, my friends, is dedication.

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman