Why Vince Vaughn isn’t making Swingers, Wedding Crashers sequels
He has starred in some of Hollywood’s most bankable comedies. But Vince Vaughn has a good reason why he has so far refused to ‘cash in’ and make sequels. Here, he explains why.
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They say you should never work with animals or children. But unlike Friends star David Schwimmer, who had a disastrous time with the cute capuchin monkey who played Ross’s pet Marcel in season one, Vince Vaughn has nothing but good things to say about his latest co-star, a primate named Crystal.
In fact, Vaughn reveals Crystal was “a total professional” and a “joy” on the set of his new comedy mystery series Bad Monkey. And little wonder: like cinematic comedy veteran Vaughn, Crystal knows how to raise a smile and steal a scene, having appeared in films including Night At The Museum and George Of The Jungle. Her The Hangover Part II co-star Ken Jeong even went so far as to dub Crystal “the best actor I’ve worked with”.
Likewise, Wedding Crashers actor Vaughn says Crystal had all the qualities he looks for in a fellow performer.
“[Crystal] really was on time. The smells were good. She was a great scene partner,” Vaughn tells The Binge Guide with his signature sardonic curl of the lip.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Carl Hiaasen, Bad Monkey sees Vaughn play Andrew Yancy, a dedicated Florida detective forced to work as a health inspector after a run-in with his lover’s husband.
Crystal stars as a mischievous monkey named Driggs.
Enlisted to transport an Esky containing a severed arm to the Miami morgue before it scares away tourists, Yancy begins a rogue investigation into how the lost limb managed to find its way to the end of a honeymooner’s fishing line.
“What I really liked about Yancy was he’s almost like a myth,” Vaughn explains. “You have a trickster that believes that, despite the obvious odds or the things that are stacked against him, he’s going to be able to get to the bottom of this.”
Yancy – like many of Vaughn’s famous characters – is a working-class guy who enjoys a beer, is a bit of a flirt, and who’s not afraid to thumb his nose at authority. So how much of Vaughn himself is in the loveable louts he’s made his niche?
“We all have sides of ourselves and, as an actor, you get to bring different things to the forefront, depending on what the character is. That’s the fun of it,” he says.
Vaughn also serves as a producer on the series alongside Bill Lawrence, a powerhouse with a back catalogue of hits that include Spin City, Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ted Lasso and Shrinking.
“I used to play in a poker game with Bill when we were both in our early 20s,” he says.
“So I’ve known him for a long time. He was always someone that struck me as funny … It was fun to finally get a chance to do something with him.”
As a member of the group of actors dubbed the “Frat Pack”, Vaughn has often collaborated with friends including Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell.
While it’s been a while between Frat Pack screen reunions, Vaughn confirms there is “a good story on the table” that may see him get back into his activewear to star in Dodgeball 2, alongside Stiller and company, some 20 years after the first film hit cinemas.
As for other hits such as Swingers and Wedding Crashers, Vaughn reveals “we’ve flirted and got close a couple of times” on follow-ups, but nothing came to pass.
“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve had some stories really work well with audiences and sometimes there was a rush to do a sequel right away,” he says.
“I never dove into one because I just felt like it was a cash grab when there wasn’t really a story to tell. But I’ve always been open to it.”
Bad Monkey is streaming now on Apple TV+ with new episodes dropping on Wednesdays.
Read the full interview with Vince Vaughn in The Binge Guide, on the flip side of the latest issue of Stellar. For more from Stellar and Something To Talk About, click here.
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