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By: CARL CORTEZ, Contributing Editor, iFMagazine.com
iFMagazine.com
Article found here
In 1996 Vince Vaughn broke through with his fine comedic turn in SWINGERS. Almost ten years later, he���s still the life of the party but crashing weddings in the new comedy WEDDING CRASHERS co-starring Owen Wilson.
"When I first heard the title, it made me laugh," explains Vaughn. "I've always liked Owen [Wilson] since BOTTLE ROCKET and I liked it, not only was he funny but I always thought of him as a really good actor too. [Director] David [Dobkin] and I had a great experience doing CLAY PIGEONS with so I was really excited about getting the chance to take this concept and work with those two guys on it."
The movie chronicles two lifelong bachelors (Vaughn and Wilson) who crash weddings for food, women and a good time. Problems arise when real relationships with women start to form from their antics.
"There's innocence when you're younger, you kind of don't know any better," says Vaughn. "But these guys know better and it gets to that place where, you've been on auto pilot for awhile and now you're no longer happy. You're starting to have to come to terms with the whole coming of age. That's my favorite thing about it, I like that I get put in a situation and end up having a resolve or an arc that is not obvious -- that you don't think is what the movie is about."
In some ways, Vaughn admits there is a kinship to his character from SWINGERS and the one from WEDDING CRASHERS, though he also notes there are differences as well.
"There are similarities, but this latest character is the cooler guy," says Vaughn. "This guy's more manic, again he's going through more manic situations. But I saw this one as kind of like, he loves to eat, he loves life. He's kind of like the big loveable friend. Where Trent's more of a smoother kind of more ladies man type than this character."
Some improvisation occurred on set too, though most of that happened prior to coming to set which Vaughn says is sometimes beneficial in milking a premise like WEDDING CRASHERS for all its worth.
"We would take the scenes and work on them prior to getting there," says Vaughn. "Sometimes people that are very good at improvisation in life, meaning like stage improvisation, aren't good in films because you have to ultimately take a scene where it needs to go. It's not about just saying something that's funny. You can say something funny, but if it's not on story or driving the scene to its end, it's really not very helpful at all. So we would really sit and plan out stuff that was said to make sure that not only was it funny but it got across the point. So we would write sometimes that day or the night before, but most of the lines were written down in the form that we like prior to shooting. Then of course not much different than method acting, the main thing about improvising is listening so if something happens that wasn't expected and you know your character, you know what has to happen in the scene, you can react to that in a way that is honest and it might take you in a different direction but go to the same place. It's not like you go to scenes and say 'Oh let me think of crazy things to say.' There is kind of a method to all of the madness of talk."
Reuniting with his CLAY PIGEONS director David Dobkin was also a great experience for Vaughn.
"We were trying to make a character comedy that we took very seriously as far as story was concerned," says Vaughn. "We really treated it very seriously, so as a result we set up, I think a really nice environment for people to feel comfortable to play and to bring ideas. The thing that is great about David is that he's a great listener. Most of the really good directors that I've worked with are pretty comfortable taking ideas from any road. They don't see it as giving up power, they have the power and they are comfortable enough to do that. So we got great ideas from everyone, it became a great collaboration. Everyone who played any part had really good contributions to their characters. Bradley Cooper did, of course Isla [Fisher] I think is really funny. The fun thing for me about Isla was, so many times in these movies the girls really get the short end of the stick, in that they are there just to kind of laugh at whatever the guy says, whether it's funny or not. In this movie Isla really gets to be funny and she really gets to drive some scenes with some comedy with kind of an over commitment to the absurd, which is what comedy really is. I like that the movie has some original things in it like that that you don't get in every film. It was fun for me, while I am kind of driving scenes and being the comic relief that sometimes with Isla there's oddity that she's even crazier and I, by default become kind of the straight man who's reacting to her kind of adding to the scene. So it's a unique flip."
While Vaughn has been high profile recently popping up in everything from STARSKY AND HUTCH, BE COOL and last summer���s big comedy hit DODGEBALL, Vaughn admits his real love in the comedy world is creating comedy from the characters themselves.
"My real partner in crime, always was [Jon] Favreau, so my thing is always real character driven comedies like SWINGERS and MADE, not sketch comedy," says Vaughn. "Not that there's not room for both or one isn't enjoyable, just my personal taste. I like movies that comedy coming from out of flaws of people. Things that aren't comfortable, to have a tragedy, like Favreau's phone call in SWINGERS. Real but it's also kind of funny, but it's hard to watch cause you've done it yourself. Owen's of that type of comedic actor so I really enjoyed doing this with him particularly."
Currently, Vaughn is lensing "The Break-Up" with Jennifer Aniston for a 2006 release, which he says is a dark romantic comedy.
"All the scripts I would get for romantic comedies always have some really stupid concept like if you marry her you get the million dollars, if you don't, you don't,���" says Vaughn. "Or ���hey I'm going to write an article on how to meet someone and then "The Break-Up" with them.��� It's like relationships are crazy enough I always felt like this is insane, why? This doesn't happen. I always like the movie THE ODD COUPLE where you have the friends that were stuck in the place together. So "The Break-Up" is about a young couple, not so young, really, who buy a condo together. The movie starts, they've already bought it, and it takes both of their salaries to upkeep it and to pay the mortgage and they really have a bad thing and "The Break-Up". So they are kind of stuck, living under this roof together, figuring out their lives, but they've just broken up with each other. They "The Break-Up" right away, it's not like down the road, and I think it's really fun. It���s the anti-romantic comedy."
Posted by Christine at July 14, 2005 1:25 AM