Director Matthew Vaughn has a unique voice that translates into his brash action films. He’s fond of pushing the envelope, visually, in the spy genre – as he recently does with Argylle and also pulled off in the Kingsmen franchise of films. And that aggressive attitude also powered Vaughn’s detours into the comic book and graphic novel world, as when he worked on both Kick-Ass and his lone X-Men film, X-Men: First Class. It was on that latter film that Vaughn actually punched an extra… but he had a good reason to, and also, they were friends.
We had the opportunity to have Matthew Vaughn on CinemaBlend’s official podcast, ReelBlend, to talk Argylle and his career in general. When we mentioned X-Men: First Class, we brought up the Magneto scene where Michael Fassbender’s vengeful mutant has tracked down former Nazis in hiding to an Agentinian bar. You can cut the tension in the scene with a knife – which is also what Magneto uses to kill the bartender in the scene. Only, according to Vaughn, he wasn’t getting the right reaction from the stunt performer playing the bartender.
As Vaughn remembers it, this was the first scene that they shot in the movie. And he was nervous, being what he called a “director for hire” by Marvel and 20th Century Fox, as opposed to producing his own content. And so, as he recalls:
One of the guys I worked with, Carlos, I put him behind the bar as the Argentinian barman. And we are shooting the first scene. And I said, ‘Look, what's going to happen…’ He's not an actor, obviously. He works with me. And he's pulling the pint and handing it over and, and then walks over and he's gets the knife (in his chest). And he kept going, ‘Ooh,’ I'm like, ‘Dude, you got, this is a knife. It's FLYING through the air. It goes into you!’ He's like, ‘What do you mean? What do you mean?’ And Fassbender is thinking this is an actor, even though I know him. I went, ‘I'll tell you what I’ll do. Ready three, two…’ And I just fucking punched him as hard as I could. He's an old friend. I winded him, and he went down . And I was like, ‘That is what I mean.’ And the whole crew, all the actors were just like, ‘Okay…’ And then I said, ‘Ready? Let's go.’ And that's where I think the tension came from. Because they were just like, ‘Jesus, this guy's gonna punch me if I get it wrong.’ And he is a big guy as well. I think they were thinking if I'll punch him, I'll punch anyone.
That’s certainly one way to establish dominance on set. And the authenticity achieved by Matthew Vaughn on that production might be why X-Men: First Class ranks as one of the best X-Men movies made to date. Vaughn did such an incredible job, it was a shame that they didn’t bring him back to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past because Bryan Singer wanted to return to the series. And then Vaughn also has a story to tell as to why he didn’t stay on and direct X-Men: The Last Stand.
Make sure to listen to Matthew Vaughn’s ReelBlend conversation, in full:
We expect the X-Men to officially become part of the MCU with Deadpool 3, the upcoming Marvel movie. The transition started when Beast showed up in a mid-credits scene in The Marvels. And we’ve also seen multiversal versions of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I wonder of Matthew Vaughn might ever try another X-Men movie, because I loved his First Class, and think he really understands these characters. Time will tell.
