Melissa McCarthy brags that sleeping with her Tammy director was one of the big perks of starring in this R-rated comedy set to enter theaters on July 2, 2014. Fortunately, McCarthy’s comments aren’t in the least bit scandalous as Ben Falcone, who’s making his feature film directorial debut with Tammy, is not only her director and co-writer but also her husband.

The pair have been working on this particular story for years but never thought they’d land a cast that includes big-name actors like Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates. And neither McCarthy nor Falcone ever dreamed Tammy would earn a prime summer release date.

As the film heads to theaters, McCarthy joined her co-stars and Falcone in Los Angeles for a press conference in support of the Warner Bros Pictures release. Here’s what she had to say about the comedy that finds her hitting the road for a wild trip with her grandmother (played by Sarandon).

On where the idea came from:

Melissa McCarthy: “Ben came downstairs having literally just woken up and said, ‘I had a weird dream and I think I have to write it. You go on a road trip with your grandmother and she drinks and she sleeps around. I’m going to go write that movie.’ I thought, ‘All right, why don’t you do that.’ He had it in a dream, came downstairs, and that was about six years and that began the whole thing. He says things and I say, ‘That’s sounds great.’ I just agree with him and it all works out.'”

On writing the characters:

Melissa McCarthy: “I think for us we worked on it a long time before we actually got the chance to show it to people and make it. And by the time we were ready to show people, we’d had it for years. We knew these people and we felt protective of them. I think if somebody wanted a bigger scene or a bigger trailer moment, I think we just knew, ‘That person wouldn’t do that.’ It doesn’t have to be bigger or flashier, it just has to stay in the right realm of the story. For me, if you can walk that line of ‘more eccentric characters can push pretty far,’ if you stay on the side of reality I think it’s always funnier. We tried to let all of these people push as far as they could but keep it real. Hopefully, the story has more impact that way.”

On the idea of Tammy being released with all the big summer movies:

Melissa McCarthy: “We had been working on it for years and I think we just thought, ‘What if? What if? Can you imagine?’ I don’t know how concrete we ever thought it could actually make the next step, and then that was happening. I think it all came in stages and then when people started actually reading it…like when I found out certain people had it, like Kathy [Bates], I had a weird [reaction]. I physically, literally was coming apart at the seams. I was like, ‘I don’t know if she’s ever going to read it, but the fact that it’s in her house is like making me have weird breakdowns all throughout the day.’ Every step of it, it’s still dreamy to me.”

On the worst thing physically she’s done to herself trying to get a laugh:

Melissa McCarthy: “Well, the worst fall I took during Tammy we weren’t even shooting yet but I did a test run on the Jet-Ski. I had only been on one one other time and that was like 10 years ago on our honeymoon. I was going 40 mph which now I realize may be not the best thing for someone who doesn’t know how to drive one. And the lovely man that was helping me, teaching me, said, ‘Really dig into it.’ And he meant at the end on the big wide turn once you slow down, turn into it.

I just heard ‘turn into it’ so I cranked it up to 40 and I thought I was supposed to do these S-curves and I flipped myself off it so hard I lost her first wig. We had a tiny budget and they were like $7,000. I was in the water and I didn’t know I was off the Jet-Ski; it was that fast that I just flipped the whole thing. I was underwater and the first thing I went for was the wig. We were doing camera tests and I was in full costume. Once I figured out which way was up because I didn’t know underwater, I came up and I said, ‘At least we got it!’ They said, ‘We didn’t turn the camera on yet!’ I was like, ‘Noooooo!'”

On Tammy believing she’s a ‘Cheeto’:

Melissa McCarthy: “One of the things I loved about the character Tammy is that kind of confidence, right or wrong, in her world. She believes it. I always love playing that. I don’t think someone has to be justified. In her point of view, she was great. The fun of playing that character is that even she throughout the film realizes that, ‘I’m perhaps doing a lot of things poorly,’ you see her make this little shift to maybe she becomes the ‘cheeto’ she always thought she could be. It’s a lot of cheeto references.”

On improv’ing mouth-to-mouth with a deer:

Melissa McCarthy: “Yeah, which just shows I’m not very bright. We were talking about it that if she really hit a deer she would feel horrible, like you would, and that she would do whatever it would take. I said, ‘If she’s really down there with it, would she try to resuscitate it and would it work?’ Then we thought we wouldn’t get that close.

It’s a digital deer. I did not actually run down a deer for Tammy. I promise.”

On growing up in Illinois and how it informed her comedy:

Melissa McCarthy: “Ben and I both grew up in Illinois and that’s kind of why when we started writing it Ben said I think this woman is from where he grew up, and that’s also where I went to college. We based it on real people we know and what it’s like if you feel stuck. I think there’s people who really love the comfort of their small town and there’s people that feel stuck by it. That kind of was our jumping-off place. If you’re really stuck in this rut and you’re just stuck in this whole little tiny world of things you don’t like, how hard do you have to get hit to bump you out of your vicious cycle?”

On writing the relationship between Lenore and Susanne:

Melissa McCarthy: “Well, I think we wanted to have somebody in their lives that was kind of the goal. We wanted somebody to be like, ‘Oh, they’re in a great relationship,’ and the Lenore character had made it out and become really successful. We needed somebody to be the strong, successful one that wasn’t also coming down on anyone or making anyone feel guilty. I mean, I loved all the stuff between Susan [Sarandon] and Kathy [Bates] so much because you know from Lenore’s character she’s not making all of these bad choices but she never makes Susan’s character feel guilty about it.

I just thought that was kind of necessary to have in the film. And then Kathy and Sandra [Oh], it just seemed right. Even right away when they were together it all just felt right. It felt like that great couple that you look at and just think, ‘Oh, what’s that magic?’ because they just feel right together.'”

On road trips:

Melissa McCarthy: “One time I did have to pull over, I’m like, ‘I’m driving this time! That will keep me awake.’ And before we even got to the 405 I just remember Ben going, ‘Oh my god! You’re swerving.’ We did not make it 15 minutes from the house when we had to pull over and switch. I’d be good for like the first 10 minutes and then I’m out, so I’m super helpful.

But we drove back after we shot this. We drove back from Niagara Falls with our kids all the way to Los Angeles, so that was a doozy.”

On inspiring grandparents:

Melissa McCarthy: “Nothing in Susan’s character in terms of like the drinking or the men stuff, but it’s like I love that no matter what, even if they weren’t meshing up at that moment, the bottom line was she loved Tammy. She loved her daughter even if she was like, ‘I really don’t want to be here right now, but I love you.’ I feel like no matter what…I was not at odds with my grandmother but I knew even if I got in trouble with her she may scold me when I was little but I knew she loved me. That was a big part of it to me was that there was nothing you could do to make the love go away, even if they were at odds.”

On what embarrassing songs on her iPod:

Melissa McCarthy: “I have the weirdest mix but you know what I keep playing over and over is Skee-Lo’s ‘I Wish.’ In my car, there’s a lot of weird dancing and if I ever get caught it will be embarrassing. Hands are up – not on the wheel. But it’s usually like a lot of ’80s hip-hop. I have a really weird mix. I’ll dance to anything.”

On what’s up next:

Melissa McCarthy: “Next, Ben and I are currently – with our friend Steve Mallory – writing a new movie for Universal. It’s a comedy and it’ll be PG-13 so my kids will actually be able to see it, so that’s exciting. That’s what we’re doing right now.”