May has been a month of endings for Ed Helms. First came the series finale of The Office, a show he has been starring in since 2007. Then came The Hangover Part III, which is billed as the final movie in the box office hit comedy franchise. He spoke to Moviefone about the end of two eras in his life and why now is the right time for both to conclude.
Helms wasn’t looking for any grand sendoff for his character, Stu, when he signed on for The Hangover Part III. He explains, “If anything, and for Stu in particular, I just wanted a sense of closure for the whole Hangover/Wolf Pack world. And then if I got a few good jokes in along the way, I’d be happy.”
Though the two franchises he is most known for have ended, Helms nevertheless admits he felt like it was time to move on. He confesses, “It’s very very sad. I love both of these things so much and yet in both cases it just feels like the right time and the right step for both. I can’t even begin to describe how much both The Office and The Hangover have impacted my life. It’s been a hell of a ride. The best analogy I can think of is when you get on a rollercoaster and it’s so fun and there’s peaks and valleys, there’s scary parts, there’s exciting parts, there’s a lot of laughs and screams along the way. And then when you finally pull into the station at the end of a rollercoaster ride, you’re bummed. You don’t want to get off. But you realize if you stayed on the rollercoaster you’d probably get hurt or sick or something. It’s time marching on. It’s life evolving. And it’s very poignant and very exciting.”
Helms continues with the rollercoaster analogy when asked if he ever thought either would become a beloved franchise. He says, “That’s part of the peaks of the rollercoaster. It’s like Space Mountain at Disneyland. It’s dark, you can’t really see where you’re going… and I’m going to stop with the rollercoaster analogy. You can’t know. All you can do is, when you’re in a creative situation like that, just put it all out there and leave it all on the court. Which I really think everybody in The Office and The Hangover did. And you hope that people respond and they did. I’m just so grateful to have been a part of both things.”
