THERE WAS A period, back in 1996, when you couldn’t walk through a trendy bar without hearing guys in spectator shoes calling each other "money" and musing about all the "beautiful babies" lining up for drinks. When the lindy hop was no longer a dance well past its prime. When twentysomethings began ordering martinis instead of Miller Lite.
You can thank — or blame — Vince Vaughn and his breakthrough film Swingers for helping launch the retro-swing movement. Vaughn co-starred in the film with his friend Jon Favreau; the pair reunited in Made earlier this year. And though he’s also appeared in movies including The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Cell, Clay Pigeons, and 1998’s remake of the classic Psycho, Swingers is still the film for which Vaughn is best known.
But in recent months, Vaughn’s also been known as the actor who got into a bar brawl in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was filming his latest movie, Domestic Disturbance. (The film, in which he stars alongside John Travolta, opens November 2.) Vaughn, 31, and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg were arrested in the melee, and actor Steve Buscemi was stabbed. Vaughn and Rosenberg were subsequently banned for life from all bars in downtown Wilmington. The man with whom they fought will spend 180 days in jail for his part in the incident.
Now Vaughn is glad to be talking about his acting career rather than his police record. But don’t expect warm-and-fuzzy from the actor anytime soon: in Domestic Disturbance, he plays a man whose stepson accuses him of murder.
Q: Do you credit Swingers with changing the course of your career?
A: Oh, without a doubt. I mean, Swingers came out of a frustration of not really having a traditional way in, and so it gave us the freedom that we thought, You know, this movie’s never going to be seen, so we’re going to tell the story exactly how we want to tell it. And then from that to gain opportunity to be an actor in other stuff is just sort of, like, the last thing I expected. So it was sort of an overwhelming sensation of Wow, now I can be in these movies? That’s weird.
Q: When’s the last time you called somebody "money"?
A: Oh, man. I try to avoid it at every turn, but sometimes you still get it. But it’s flattering that it became such a saying, you know? The same with the music that took off; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy were friends of ours, they were a local band, and they ended up playing the Super Bowl. The whole thing was just such an unbelievable result. It was strange.
Q: What attracted you to Domestic Disturbance and to the role of Rick Barnes?
A: I’ve always been a huge fan of [John Travolta]. I love JT, I grew up on him. Also I thought the circumstance was interesting: when a parent meets somebody, there’s a courtship between them and that significant other. But the child and the other person are thrown into an intimate relationship without any getting to know each other. So it’s like, What are the boundaries, am I a disciplinarian? And the child thinks, Do I listen to this person, do I not? There’s a rivalry with the other parent — you don’t want to take their place, but at the same time you want to have a friendship. So it’s complicated. And that being the backdrop for the boy-who-cried-wolf story was interesting to me. And I liked that it wasn’t gratuitous where the child was concerned; it was more about the threat of something going on than continual, physical abuse. I liked that it was more about the limbo.
Q: How do you get inside the head of someone who’s so bad?
A: I think you never play a bad guy like a bad guy; you play him like, in his mind, he’s justified for what he’s doing. Which is all the more disturbing, I think, you know? Because in their mind, they’re validated.
Q: Do you feel like you have to be able to sympathize, on some level, with every character you play?
A: Not sympathize as Vince, no. I mean, as Vince I don’t sympathize at all with this character’s actions. But as an actor playing the character, you have to believe their code, or how they operate. And for me, whether it’s a good guy or a bad guy, it’s fun to play people that have extreme leaps.
Q: So this bad-guy thing — you’re on sort of a roll. You’ve done, what, three now?
A: I’ve done a few. Clay Pigeons, Psycho, and this, I guess. But it’s not like an intentional thing: I’m going to be a bad guy, I’m going to be a villain. It’s just more a case-by-case thing of what comes available and what you want to get involved in.
Q: Are bad guys more fun to play?
A: I think just any character that’s out of bounds as far as how most people are in life is fun to play, because you get to go to places that are kind of different than what you would in your normal life. So it’s not really based on good or evil.
Q: When did you first know you’d be an actor?
A: Both my parents worked, so I was involved a lot with different activities during the day over the summers, and one of them was a community theater, where you had to be 13 years or younger to be in musicals. And acting was sort of the one thing, or making jokes, that I was successful at, and I think it was really failure in a lot of other areas: I wasn’t a great student, I wasn’t a great athlete, and acting was sort of the place where I felt like I got a chance to participate. And then I went with a friend when I was 17 down to Chicago to watch him on an audition, and I ended up getting the part, so it just kind of happened to me. I just started getting commercials, and I said, Well, I’ll move to Hollywood because they make movies there. You know, very naive. Because I loved it. I would’ve been very happy to end up on a TV show or anything; I really just wanted to work.
Q: Tell me about Anne Heche. You’ve worked with her a few times, on Psycho and Return to Paradise. What do you think of all the controversy around her right now?
A: You know, that’s just Anne — she’s always got controversy around her. I know her as an actress, I think she’s one of the best out there, she’s a hell of an actor, and I liked her very much and found her to be very talented and very committed to her work. She’s on a personal journey that’s her journey, and makes sense to her.
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: I’m not reading anything currently. I finished a book recently about prison, called God of the Rodeo. I read maybe two books a year, unfortunately. If I have time off, I can read, but when I’m working I don’t. I really like to read; as a kid, more so than I studied or got good grades, I would read books. In fact, I was fortunate enough that there was a class a day in school where you’d go and you’d just pick up a book and sit and read, and you got credit for it. Which I think is a great class; everyone should have that.
Q: Do you think scenes of the World Trade Center should be taken out of trailers, movies, TV shows? A lot of directors are removing all references to the buildings.
A: That’s an individual decision. You know, someone could feel really justified and say, No, let’s have it. Other people say, It’s too much of a reminder for people, I don’t want to have them watch a movie that’s supposed to help them escape and bring that back. I can see an argument on both sides.
Q: Did you fly into Boston? What’s traveling been like since September 11?
A: It takes a little longer, but people are even more patient now, I think ... given the circumstances. It’s real friendly up there now, people are real nice to each other. Out of all the things that are tragic, hopefully some unity and some love comes out of it.
Q: Can you recommend any bars in Wilmington?
A: Ahh ... are you going down there?
Q: No, I’m just kidding. How do you feel about all the media attention to what happened down there?
A: I’m just happy that the truth came out finally, that the case was resolved. It was hard to be quiet during a time when misinformation was being said, and you’re not allowed to talk because prosecutors are prosecuting someone and you don’t want [the defense] to be able to build a case off of it. So the truth coming out, that the kid was drinking on prescription drugs, then the reality becomes that. There’s a need, in the beginning, to spin some sort of exciting story. Unfortunately, it’s part of what comes with where I’m at. For me, I’m just glad everyone’s all right, I’m glad that justice was served. I do hope that that kid — I think he made a real bad mistake, but I hope that he’s able to go on and have a life after this as well. There’s forgiveness here for him.
Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com
