M-ooo-vies with Vince
Listening to Vince Vaughn riff is like hearing jazz. Words become musical notes, short staccato blasts or elongated sounds (when those plush lips form “movie,” it becomes “m-oooo-vie”). Sentences become rhythmic patterns, with peaks, valleys and snaky curves.
Who else could take a simple line like “Why would I want to do the dishes?” – as he does in his new movie, “The Break-Up” – and transform it into a trumpet call for the war between the sexes?
This “anti-romantic” comedy, which quickly ditches the usual meet-cute formula and dives in when matters get ugly, is based on his own original story idea – a reaction to the dippy, lovey-dovey scripts he was offered.
“They always have this really ridiculous subplot to them,” he says. “Like, you know, if you marry the girl, you will get the inheritance and run the company. And, if you don’t, I’m going to give it to this mean guy who works for me. I’m more of a fan of comedy that has some reality to it or some believability to it.”
His pick for a good romantic comedy? “I like ‘Terms of Endearment’ a lot,” he says.
You mean, where Debra Winger dies of cancer and the audience weeps uncontrollably?
“I think that’s a great m-oooo-vie,” he says, slightly defensive.
Rest assured that laughs abound in “The Break-Up,” and the only thing that expires is the relationship between Vaughn and co-star Jennifer Aniston, who refuse to vacate their jointly owned condo.
Still, those who enjoyed the free-for-all frivolity of “Wedding Crashers” – last year’s top-grossing comedy ($209 million) and Vaughn’s long-delayed invite to the Hollywood A-list – might want to brace themselves for an emotionally bumpy ride.
Vaughn, 36, swung onto the scene as a fast-talking, babe-magnet hipster in 1996’s “Swingers,” with a catchphrase that haunts him to this day: “You’re so money!”
Jay Lavender, 31, who co-wrote “The Break-Up” screenplay, was one of many college-age kids who held Vaughn in awe after experiencing “Swingers.”
“I couldn’t take my eyes off of him,” Lavender says. “He had such incredible energy and wit. In my mind, he was a superstar. There was no question his time would come.”
But Vaughn swiftly fell into the blockbuster trap, mistaking an underwritten role in 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” for a career booster. Even this 6-foot-5 tower of manly mystique – once described as the imaginary love child of Ann-Margret and Elvis – could not compete with a rampaging T. rex.
He settled into a groove of being a standout in forgettable dramas that relied on his looming physique but often failed to take advantage of his verbal dexterity.
Says Aniston, who is Vaughn’s offscreen squeeze as well as his onscreen sparring partner: “I knew him more as a dramatic guy than the comedy guy. I knew him from ‘Clay Pigeons,’ from ‘A Cool, Dry Place,’ from ‘Swingers.’ And all those movies you knew Vince Vaughn was in that you didn’t necessarily …”
She politely drifts off, but the unspoken word – “see” – hangs awkwardly in the air.
Vaughn says it was his choice to take such assignments as exhuming Norman Bates in the critically stabbed 1998 remake of “Psycho.”
“I had a lot of opportunities, but I didn’t really care for a lot of the comedies,” he explains.
Jon Favreau, Vaughn’s longtime buddy who wrote “Swingers” and plays his best friend in “The Break-Up,” has another theory.
“When you look like him, you are either the lead or the enemy of the lead who is trying to take his girl away,” Favreau says. “But what people don’t realize is he is really a character actor at heart. That is why I lump him with Walter Matthau and Jack Nicholson.”
All it took for Vaughn to break through was a few friends in high places and a three-year string of comedic showcases, big and small: the aged frat boy of “Old School,” the drug baron in “Starsky & Hutch,” the good-guy gym owner in “Dodgeball,” a rival newshound in “Anchorman,” the jive-talking agent in “Be Cool” (“Twinkle twinkle, baby, twinkle twinkle”), Brad Pitt’s boss in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and the nuptial freeloader in “Wedding Crashers.”
He received $12 million to act in “The Break-Up,” with a $2 million chaser to produce and assist with writing. And Premiere estimates his price at $20 million to play Santa’s resentful brother in next year’s “Joe Claus.”
He also has a higher visibility of the unwanted kind. Call them Vinnifer, or Vaughniston – just don’t call them a couple to their faces. Not even the mighty Oprah could coerce Vaughn or Aniston to separately spill any details about their connection on the air.
They will gladly compliment each other, however. Aniston’s take on Vaughn: “He is really charismatic on screen. He is a very interesting human being and that just makes him a more interesting actor.”
Vaughn returns the favor: “She gives such a great performance in this, in those scenes that she does when it turns dramatic. They are simple and really truthful, not overdone, not overacting. Just really raw and honest.”
He doesn’t get too upset by the invasiveness of the media: “Right now, we are in a real kind of situation where everyone is fascinated. But that will go away.”
Just like his character – or almost any commitment-phobe male in a romantic comedy, for that matter – Vaughn has spent his life dodging the altar.
“I’ve been in really serious relationships with people I’ve been in love with,” he says. “Marriage has been talked about but never planned. I’ve never gotten to a place of saying, ‘Well, OK.’ “
Part of his reluctance comes from witnessing the sacrifices made by his parents, who divorced when he was 21, for him and his two older sisters.
“They had kids so young and both worked and their children were the focus of their life,” Vaughn says. “What we do as an actor is kind of a selfish pursuit. So you always put that stuff on hold. And as you get older, your priorities start to shift and you say, ‘Maybe I’m ready for my life to be about someone else.’ “
No one connected to “The Break-Up” will speculate whether Vaughn and Aniston being an actual twosome will attract moviegoers, as was the case last year with her ex, Brad Pitt, and his new love Angelina Jolie in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” Or if it will repel them, “Gigli”-style.
“This movie will determine how his career goes,” Favreau predicts. “He could either be a well-paid hired gun or, if this film is successful, he could be somebody who gets to create his own material and decide who and where and how he is going to work. And that is certainly what he wants to do.”