Few would say that Vince Vaughn (“The Internship”) is an underdog in the world of comedy. From getting jacked off under the dinner table in “Wedding Crashers” to successfully fertilizing 500 eggs in “Delivery Man,” Vaughn’s filmography boasts some of the most loved and hysterically memorable comedies of the past 20 years. Yet Vaughn often plays exactly what he is not: the underdog.
His latest endeavor, “Unfinished Business,” is no different. It’s the tale of a small-business owner, Dan Trunkman (Vaughn), who takes off to Europe with his associates, Mike Pancake (Dave Franco, “22 Jump Street”) and Timothy McWinters (Tom Wilkinson, “Batman Begins”), to close the biggest deal of their lives. Again, Vaughn takes on an unknown, original screenplay and plays the guy who’s just trying to figure it all out. In a conference call with The Michigan Daily, Vaughn discussed this ongoing trend of underdog-esque characters that he chooses to play.
“I guess I relate more to the underdogs in life, personally. What I like about the movie is that these guys are in a position that they don’t like in life. They are involved in a job that they are not passionate about,” Vaughn said. “In a moment he pushes all in and thinks that things could be different. What’s fun is that Dave Franco’s character is very funny and unique and Tom Wilkinson is, it makes it root-able that you have a group of guys that are in a position where the stakes are high and you are rooting for them.”
And that’s the formula for many of his films: take a guy who realizes the mundane quality of his life and wants to make something of it, something of himself. From “Dodgeball” to “Wedding Crashers” and now “Unfinished Business,” this remains the case. The beauty of these characters is that they reflect how Vaughn transforms his films. Vaughn takes on smaller, sometimes independent films and makes them distinguished and unique through the fullness and life he brings to his characters.
“I like being a part of an original idea, there’s something that’s exciting about it,” Vaughn said. “I do understand when someone is moved by something or excited by something and they almost want to homage it, or they have an interpretation of it. It feels like nowadays, in the market place, there is a sense that you have to have a big IP or franchise in order to cut through in the movie theaters. The fault of that is that a lot of the character stuff or people driven stories go to the waste side.”
Vaughn’s taste for character-driven writing isn’t limited to the comedy films he’s well known for. The 44-year-old actor recently finished filming the second season of “True Detective.”
“I’m kind of returning on some level to dramas, which was the first thing I broke out with. Now that I’ve done comedies, people feel like that’s a switch. I feel really excited to get on a different tone. (Series creator) Nick (Pizzolatto) is incredible, the story is phenomenal,” Vaughn said.
Though the similarities between Vaughn’s participation in “True Detective” and “Unfinished Business” seem initially nonexistent, “True Detective” is a writer’s TV show. Quiet and beautifully structured, as Vaughn mentioned, the show parallels Vaughn’s character-driven choices in comedy. And it’s original; it’s fresh. Vaughn spoke about the ongoing trend of remakes in Hollywood — big moneymakers versus original films.
“A lot of times if something is successful, the instinct is to copy or repeat it right away. I haven’t done a sequel to any of my comedies because I’ve always felt you need to have a really good idea that stands alone in order to put that story out versus following up the next year with another version of that movie and let the fact that the movie did well be more important than having a good concept for it. I think there is a trend to jump on something and make a sequel right away before there is an original idea to suit the characters well.”
In “Unfinished Business,” Vaughn’s character goes on a journey with the goal of being better off than where he started — and that’s how Vaughn approaches his movies. Vaughn’s choices aren’t the big, blockbuster hits (though Vaughn would debatably make a better Bruce Wayne than Ben Affleck), but rather films that appear smaller, that rely on the writing and that he pushes to the next level through his acting and character building: the underdog films.