Jon Hamm says Bridesmaids' success was down to the relatable female friendship story

Jon Hamm knew 'Bridesmaids' would be a huge success because it's about "a friendship from a distinctly female point of view."

The 43-year-old actor played the part of Ted, the sex buddy of Kristin Wiig's hopeless, unlucky-in-love character Annie in the 2011 rom-com, and as well as having a stellar predominantly female cast, Hamm says the main story's focus on the friendship between Kristin and Maya Rudolph's character Lillian and the "real, emotional" they felt for the pair when they hit rock bottom.

Speaking on 'The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham', Hamm said: "That was such a fun experience and something I knew would be fun to make.

"And when I saw it together, I knew it was going to be a huge hit because it had like you said, it's a rare comedy that can actually make you feel emotional in a rare way.

'Bridesmaids' was such a particular story about friendship from a distinctly female point of view, although there are moments of gross-out humour.

"But it's really about a friendship and that's what people identified within that movie and it had some gigantic laughs.

"So I knew that was going to be a [success] ... I mean, look at the cast, Kristin [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] and Rose Byrne and Melissa [McCarthy].

"Everyone in it is a big-hitter. It was a pleasure to be a part of."

Hamm's comments on the film come after director Paul Feig said he knew ‘Bridesmaids’ would be a hit after several test screenings.

The 60-year-old actor-turned-filmmaker was at the helm of the flick about maid-of-honour Annie trying to navigate herself through the friendship politics of her best friend's wedding, and said they were able to get real audience feedback on the jokes.

He said: "I always say nobody ever sets out to make a bad movie. But, every movie you're on people are like, 'Oh, this is going to be great' and they’re talking about like 'Oh, we're going to go win an award', even if you know if it’s horrendous. But I knew we were getting really good stuff when we were doing it, and we were just laughing every day and having so much fun. Great cast.

"But you know, we did a million test screenings, you know, where you show it to an audience, where you record their laughs, you go like, that joke didn’t work, trade that out, and we did that like nine or ten times over the course of months, and then you kinda know it's going to work with most audiences."