With The Boss hitting theaters today (and the recent news that she has joined the cast of the Netflix Gilmore Girls revival), it seems that the star of Bridesmaids, Mike & Molly, and the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot has been everywhere recently, and that’s because she has.

Melissa McCarthy has been long overdue for this kind of stardom. With almost 20 years of playing smaller roles (including larger roles as the “funny friend”), McCarthy has suddenly put the world on notice with her shocking brand of physical and verbal comedy, and it’s her tireless efforts that have landed her on the poster of a major comedy every year since 2012.

Her character in The Boss, a bad-ass ball-busting boss with a ton of money and a mouth like a grizzly bear trap, isn’t exactly a new creation. McCarthy has been inhabiting Michelle Darnelle for almost 15 years, and her husband, director, and cowriter Ben Falcone, has worked with her over a number of car trips to help squeeze the character into a satisfying comedy film.

“We now have an office and everything, but when we’re in the car together we get our best work done,” said Falcone. “I always know something good is coming when she says to me, ‘You know what I was thinking?’”

It was on one of these trips that McCarthy solidified that Michelle Darnelle was ready for her own film.

“I could never let her go,” said McCarthy. “I took that as a sign that I wasn’t done with her. I just kept thinking about her. Ben and I would be talking about something completely random, then I would just say, ‘I think Michelle is an orphan. I think nobody ever really loved her.’”

Sure enough, the first sequence of the film brilliantly illustrates how a commanding character like Michelle Darnelle is born. According to McCarthy, she’s a person that’s had to build a wall between herself and the world. But when her empire comes crumbling down, so must the wall.

“We wanted to knock her down, have her realize that she needs help, and still not lose any of her strength,” said McCarthy.

According to Falcone, this basic structure for the film is what contributed to its original title: “The Rise and Fall and Rise of Michelle Darnelle.”

The duo’s last combination effort, Tammy, was received poorly by critics, but did well at the box office. Still, they didn’t want to get into the habit of simply naming their films after the character that Melissa plays.

“I love character-driven comedy, and Melissa does different characters so well,” said Falcone.

McCarthy has long been known as a chameleon character actress, but she wasn’t the only powerhouse actor who brought their comedy A-game to The Boss. In addition to the amazing work contributed by Kathy Bates, Kristen Bell, and Kristen Schaal, Peter Dinklage stole the show with his delightfully absurd interpretation of the film’s main antagonist, a “calculated, well-dressed sociopath.”

“Pete is an amazing actor, and I think he’s used to doing things right off the page,” said Falcone, referring to the highly elevated, near-Shakespearean work you would normally see on Game of Thrones where the verbiage has to be word-perfect.

“As I suspected when I first met him, he’s a tremendous improviser,” said Falcone. “Sure enough, by the end of the first day he’s saying things that are nowhere in the script.”

Dinklage proves in The Boss that he has the comedic chops of an acting giant, showing off a self-aware bravado that elevates the entire film.

“There’s something very imposing about Peter Dinklage. He radiates some kind of magic,” said McCarthy, adding that Dinklage should “stop branching out,” and “making everybody else look bad.”

The Boss hits theaters today, April 8, 2016.