Vince Vaughn says he remains hopeful about the future of comedy. As an integral member of the original so-called “Frat Pack”, which also included actors such Owen and Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Will Ferrell, Vaughn’s rise to fame in the 2000s coincided with the most recent golden era of movie comedies.
Beginning with 2003’s college romp Old School, Vaughn had a decade of comedy hits that also included Starsky and Hutch, Dodgeball: An Underdog Story, Wedding Crashers, The Break Up, Four Christmases, Couples Retreat and The Intern.
But despite big-screen comedy now being an endangered species compared with its heyday of two decades ago, and after his recent observation that late night talk shows have swapped laughs for agenda-based politics, he hopes there is a new generation that can revitalise the genre.
“It’s there – you see a lot of it in stand up,” Vaughn says over Zoom call of the ongoing appetite for comedy.
“These guys are kind of going different places. So, I think it’s coming in different outlets. But I’d love to see some people under 30 get a camera and get to make some great young people comedies.
“Hopefully we get to see that soon. I just like the genre, I like to laugh.”
And as to whether the current dearth of comedy on the big screen is down to filmmakers being scared to offend modern audiences – or whether moviegoers are more and more looking to be offended, Vaughn says “the pendulum always swings in different directions” and right now studios are playing it safe.
“I think that’s more about the state of the film business maybe that there’s just less theatrical stuff,” he laments. “There’s a different playbook now. It’s a risk business and so you had far more people that grew up in it knowing the risk. It’s gotten a little bit more Wall Street in a way, risk averse.”
There’s a healthy serving of comedy in Vaughn’s new movie Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. There’s also action, drama and even sci-fi thrown into the mix and the original blend of all those things – not to mention the fact that it is an entirely original creation – were what made Vaughn sit up and take notice.
“It’s always fun to do something original and it’s just fun to be in something that’s not a remake,” Vaughn says of a movie landscape dominated by sequels, prequels, spin-offs and superheroes. “This movie was so fun when I read it. It’s kind of funny and then there is a hyper gangster world and now there’s time travel and there’s cool action.”
Vaughn plays the titular role of Nick – in fact the doubly titular role – as two versions of the same loan shark, one from the present and the other from six months in the future. After discovering his buddy Mike (James Marsden) is having an affair with his wife Alice (Eiza Gonzalez), the enlightened future version of Nick goes back in time to prevent his resentful, slightly unhinged past version from doing something he now knows he will regret.
Like many time travel movies from Looper to The Terminator, especially in the scenes where the two Nicks are trading barbs and blows, it’s best not to think too hard about the logistics of all, but Vaughn says he relished the challenge of the dual role.
“I like that at the centre it’s really about these relationships and forgiveness and friendship and you care about these characters but in such a fun world,” he says.
“And the two characters was cool. It’s like that thing I think we all go through. We can be defensive or hurt and then you handle stuff out of anger or without thinking and then you feel terrible afterwards.
“So it was nice to get to be a little reflective and play the character six months later. But it was also super fun to be a little bit petty in the moment as well.”
But as a veteran of more than three decades in acting – his breakout movie Swingers turns 30 this year – what would Vaughn want to change if he could travel back in time? Not a damn thing, he says.
He admits he’s made some mistakes, but they shaped the person he is today.
“I always feel like you’ve got to go down the roads, even the ones that you didn’t handle well or things you didn’t like because it kind of makes you who you are,” he says. “I don’t know that you can cheat those lessons. You never like them in the moment, but years later you’re like, ‘Yeah, that was rough, but I’m better for going through it’. So, I’d be too nervous to mess things up. I’d probably leave it alone.”
One past experience he would be prepared to revisit – under the right circumstances – is his mega-hit rom-com Wedding Crashers with Owen Wilson, which became the first US R-rated comedy to pass the US$200 million barrier when it was released in 2005.
Rumours have swirled ever since about a possible sequel and Aussie Isla Fisher, who played his love interest and “stage five clinger Gloria, last year said that they were so close to shooting that she had a visa in her passport ready to go, only for it to fall over at the last minute.
“I think there was a time we were close,” Vaughn admits. “But, they just would have to have an original story that feels like its own movie worth telling and not just re-treading on what was there. So, I’d be open to it if we ever if we ever got to that point.
“Isla’s terrific – we had fun. Those characters were so fun to play with each other. It’s always fun to see a couple of dysfunctional people fall in love.”
Vaughn last month appeared as a guest presenter at the G’Day USA Arts Gala in Los Angeles alongside a who’s who of Aussie talent and VIPs. Although he was there to honour (and lightly roast) his co-star in the coming second season of Bad Monkey, Yvonne Strahovski, with the Excellence in Film & Television Award, he says he very much felt at home.
Not only did he shoot Mel Gibson’s war drama Hacksaw Ridge in Sydney in 2015, he’s also been a regular visitor for various business interests and promotional trips.
“I love Australia,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever met an Aussie that I haven’t enjoyed. Good sense of humour, down to earth, easy to be around.
“We had a blast shooting Hacksaw Ridge and – it was so great to be in Sydney.
“I got to be there during the Melbourne Cup and that was unbelievable. Like the whole day shut down, which was super fun.
“And I grew up going to the racetrack with my dad. I’d go to the races a lot, so it was super fun to see that.”
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is now streaming on Disney+.