Speaking of Potentially Embarrassing Scenes…: What about the masturbation scene in “Psycho?” Vaughn responded, “That scene was really important to me. That was my idea and I always thought when people said, ‘Well, that doesn’t make any sense,’ I said, ‘Well, wait a minute…’ To me it made sense in that it’s usually the sex drive that happens that’s not controllable in that moment of those urges. Once the release happens and you’re no longer driven physically, that you’re peaceful as far as your drive is concerned, that’s when the guilt and the regret would come in.
How many times have you slept with someone or something and afterwards go, ‘God, I shouldn’t have been sleeping with that person,’ or whatever. So for me, that made perfect sense of once that release happened, he would then transform and the guilt and the regret would come on. It’s not as strong in my mind if it’s able to stop the urge. If the urge is stronger, it overcomes it and then that kicks in, to me always made more sense.”
Playing Big, Broad Moments Mixed with Dramatic Moments: “So much of it is tone, informing the audience that the movie can go either direction. In ‘Dodgeball’ it’s very different because in ‘Dodgeball,’ I’m kind of a lead that’s the sane man in the insane world. I’m more like Dorothy in that movie. So I’m kind of reacting to everything. And in this movie, I’m more like the tin man because I’m more like I can be a little more crazy or a little more motivated because it’s not my burden to carry the movie in a way where you see the movie through my eyes.
My favorite kind of comedy was always like ‘The Bad News Bears’ or ‘48 Hours’ because comedy really comes out of awkwardness or pain, or things that are uncomfortable so it feels good to laugh. My favorite thing in ‘Swingers’ is when Jon Favreau makes that phone call over and over because you know what it feels like. It’s painful, but it also makes you laugh. So I think even in a movie like this, it’s a fine line between tension and laughing at it or feeling kind of awkward.”
Will Vaughn Still Be a Party Animal Into His 60s and 70s?: “If there’s a God, let’s hope so. I don't know. What I liked about this, my favorite scene or one of my favorite scenes, is that scene at the Lincoln Memorial with the guys realizing we’re getting older. We’re not in our mid-20s, we’re in our mid-30s and it’s not really the same. So that was something for me, those kind of moments that then get real. I think something works in that, me and Owen are older and have played these personas younger, that it works in that moment. Our screen history helps us there.”
Vince Vaughn and Pick-Up Lines He’s Actually Used: “We were much geekier than that in that when I would go out with my friends and stuff, you’d kind of get bored sometimes so you’d say, ‘Well, let’s give each other lines that you have to say,’ like raise the degree of difficulty. You have to say these lines and you can’t back off of them. You can’t be like, ‘Oh, my friend made me say that line.’ You have to own it as if that’s who you are.
We’re talking, ‘Excuse me if I appear to be squinting but I was up really late last night painting miniature elves. I love being in this room.’ You’re just kind of like, ‘What?!’ Or, what are some other ones we would say? ‘You know, sometimes when I’m out in public and there’s a lot of people around, I get really nervous and tense, I just picture myself swimming with dolphins and I start to calm down and relax.’ Just really kind of odd things and you’d be surprised sometimes like, ‘What? What does that mean?’ and sometimes they’re like, ‘Totally.’”
A Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau True Pickup Story: “When I was younger, we would go out and sometimes, there’s a couple occasions me and Favreau would even full on play - we were more like comedy, you know, geeks, so we’d go out and play characters sometimes just to make ourselves laugh.
Here’s [a story] that was interesting. Me and Favreau went out one time. Me and Favreau never got girls together really. One time we both picked up girls together. Separately, we got girls but together it never really worked out for us. It was jokes, jokes, jokes. One time we played this thing and I was playing it like I was really sensitive and I want to be in relationship. He played it to the extreme that he doesn’t care about relationships. He’s a sex addict, he wants to have sex, he wants to have sex, he wants to have sex. We’d talk, I’d be like, ‘You’re such an animal. I can’t believe you would sleep with that girl.’ He’s like, ‘Well, what about you? All you want to do is hold her and comb her hair.’ ‘Because I respect her, because I respect her.’ And the girls were more drawn to his character. They liked that guy more. They liked the guy that was more kind of like just like whatever.”
PAGE 3: Vince Vaughn on R Rated Comedies and "The Break Up"
