the premiere of his film Shanghai Knights. According to Dobkin, the marketing department at New Line raised some concerns regarding the protagonists of the film, who were seen as misogynists whose goal is to seduce women at weddings and have sex with them. The director saw these characters in a different light, however, convincing the department: They love weddings, authentically. They like the free food, they like the music and the bands, they like the dancing and the kids, they like talking to the grandparents. These guys make the weddings better. You would want them to crash your wedding. That's the distinction. It's not misogynistic and, in fact, what it's doing is replicating a real seduction, which is, "I want to go to bed with you, but I have all these walls up. Can you make me laugh, make me attracted to you and find a way to make this really fun so we could get to the good part?" That's a seduction. So, if I can seduce the audience — if I can make them laugh and be entertained and think these are okay guys — by the time they're dropping the girls in the bed, it's a magic trick. That was the whole idea. Vaughn and Wilson were the first actors cast in the film. Dobkin cast Bradley Cooper without even watching his audition tape as he was so impressed by the actor's test reading. Isla Fischer, then a relatively unknown actress was cast as Gloria over Shannon Elizabeth and Anna Paquin. The casting of Secretary Cleary was a contentious issue between Dobkin and the studio executives, with Dobkin wanting to cast Christopher Walken but New Line Cinema wanting a more comedic actor such as Burt Reynolds instead of Walken who was viewed as a serious character actor. The role of Claire was the final role to be cast, with Dobkin auditioning over 200 actresses before casting Rachel McAdams. Director David Dobkin originally considered the possibility of releasing a version of the film that was not R-rated in order to broaden the film's commercial appeal, but the idea was abandoned after a consultant provided a long list of the many R-Rated elements in the film, and Dobkin realized "The two funniest scenes in the movie would have had to go." Despite this New Line Cinema still did not want the film to be rated R but eventually conceded