Vince Vaughn Almost Lost His $87 Million Blockbuster That Made Him a Bankable Comedic Hero Due to His Past Track Record
- In 1990s, Vince Vaughn felt like he was repetitive in his approach and hence started to be more picky in his roles.
- Vaughn further shed light on his process of preparing and strategizing for a role he has to play next.
- Vaughn will next be seen in Animal Friends, a comedy movie directed by Peter Atencio.
In an industry like Hollywood, it’s pretty easy to be typecast as someone who can only do a certain set of roles in a genre. The same happened with Vince Vaughn back when he was typically doing drama movies with an emotional angle.
For other genres like comedy and romance, filmmakers were hesitant as they didn’t know if Vaughn would be up for the challenge. As we all know now, the actor overcame the typecast and consolidated his position as one of the diverse actors in Hollywood.
Vince Vaughn talks about Breaking the Typecast Mold
In the late 1990s, Vince Vaughn found his footing in the industry as a talented actor who shines in drama movies. However, the actor felt like he was repetitive in his approach and hence started to be more picky in his roles. It happened so much so that his agency asked him to consider the projects more seriously before saying no.
Nevertheless, Vaughn knew what he wanted to pursue and remained at it. Another concern was that the movies Vaughn was interested in weren’t widely commercial so his agency was worried about their client making good money too. It all seemed to change with the 2003 movie Old School as the actor entered the world of comedy. Recalling his experience, Vaughn told Variety,
I was just, as an actor, trying to do parts that I thought were interesting. And then it kind of changed with comedy. When Todd [Phillips] came to me with “Old School,” it felt fun and interesting. But by then, I remember that he said, “the studio’s not sure that you can be funny” because I had done mainly dramatic, independent movies since “Swingers.” But obviously, once I did “Old School,” it opened up this road to these movies that I was excited to participate in that also happened to be very commercial.
After that, Vaughn fully embraced his jester persona for films like Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball, and The Break-Up. He was able to emulate comedic characters effortlessly, making the masses forget he was ever typecast as a drama actor. Vaughn widened his skill set considerably to easily fit into any role he found interesting.
How does Vince Vaughn prepare for his roles?
Every actor has a process of preparing for the roles and getting into the shoes of the character they are playing. Vaughn further shed light on his process of preparing and strategizing for a role he has to play next. He gave an example of his role in Wedding Crashers which was appreciated by Bradley Cooper as well and Vaughn said,
I did a lot of stuff that was not scripted and it came more from the place my character was in than it was the lines. I remember really spending my day thinking about how to go about that, I like sometimes when your feet can’t quite touch the water. It feels a little vulnerable, so now you have to overcommit.
Vaughn will next be seen in Animal Friends, a comedy movie directed by Peter Atencio. The movie also casts various A-list celebrities including Ryan Reynolds and Jason Momoa.
Animal Friends will be released on August 15, 2025.
