The Hangover might have been responsible for launching Zach Galifianakis’ highly accomplished career, but the 56-year-old comedian has also admitted to feeling some unexpectedly mixed emotions as a result of the hit 2009 comedy.<\/p>\n
More recently, the Between Two Ferns host on the May 4 episode of the\u00a0Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend<\/a>podcast. During the course of their conversation, Galifianakis discussed the overwhelming experience that came from his breakout role in The Hangover, including the widespread fame and exposure he was granted as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cI am one of these people that feels very fortunate to be working, but the first part about having success or whatever, being known . . . that really messed me up. Not in a \u2018woe is me,’ but no one ever asked me any questions until I was in a movie with a monkey. I found that to be odd, that switch,” the actor said, referencing his role in 2011’s The Hangover Part II.<\/p>\n Throughout the course of The Hangover trilogy, Galifianakis played the role of Alan, a mild-mannered yet awkward eccentric primarily responsible for the alcohol-fueled happenings of the series.<\/p>\n In their conversation, podcast host Conan O’Brien observed that Galifianakis remains incredibly down-to-earth despite the fame of the series, pointing to how well certain celebrities handle the fame of Hollywood.<\/p>\n “What I found is that it’s a magnifying lens,” O’Brien said. “It just magnifies things. So if you’re insecure, you will become more insecure. If you tend to be angry, you’ll become a rageaholic. If you are someone who’s capable of feeling gratitude<\/a> and the people around you, those things can be enhanced.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was angry about it, to be honest,\u201d Galifianakis cut in to say.<\/p>\n \u201cIt intimidated me and I got weirded out by it,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut now that I’m old, none of it matters and who cares. But it was a change.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hangover might have been responsible for launching Zach Galifianakis’ highly accomplished career, but the 56-year-old comedian has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[226335,171,53,41406,67,132,68,239588],"class_list":["post-790284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-conan-o39brien","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-the-hangover","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zach-galifianakis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116559717872462339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}