Even though they’ve only led two comedies together, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s patter has warmed even the coldest of hearts. Wedding Crashers is regarded as the pinnacle of their on-screen chemistry, while their follow-up effort, The Internship, is viewed with less admiration. And even Vince Vaughn has admitted that the comedy was awash with problems.
Vaughn said as much during an interview with Playboy magazine when the subject of the interview turned to Wedding Crashers - the actor's most successful film. The actor began to explain why that movie worked, before seguing into an explanation why things didn't go so well with his Owen Wilson reunion in The Internship. Apparently, it was all about the film's rating. Vaughn explained,
Well, The Internship was supposed to be an R-rated comedy. Right before we started shooting, the studio said they wanted to go PG-13. I said I just didn’t see that. I said we’d do it both ways and then make the call. But the ship had sailed, and I found myself in a movie that was PG-13, which was not my initial intent.
Vaughn was rather pragmatic about this outcome though, admitting that as an actor he wasn’t in control of it, and that this is just part and parcel of his profession.
Juxtaposed to The Internship, Vaughn waxed lyrical about Wedding Crashers, believing that the comedy worked because it was an unashamed R-rated, raunchy comedy - and it's pretty clear that's exactly what The Internship wanted to be until the studio intervened. Vaughn, who will next be seen in Unfinished Business, added that Wedding Crashers "is an adult situation comedy," which also manages to really capture how men talk to each other. It’s packed to the brim with "purple stuff" while it also has an "explicit tone and language." Vaughn added:
You have to do that sometimes in a movie. It’s sort of a relief to people when your characters say things people are thinking, but don’t have the nerve to say.
This is all true. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson truly managed to create mirth from their chauvinistic, sex-crazed Wedding Crashers characters, who were only interested in getting laid and partying to the extreme. But most importantly, Wedding Crashers was genuinely laugh out loud funny because it was a no-holds-barred, adult comedy - something that The Internship lacked thanks to its restrictive rating. In fact The Internship suffered because it fell into a cinematic no-man’s land. It wanted to attract as wide an audience as possible, which is why it kept its jokes rather conservative, but this put Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson on a leash that ultimately meant their camaraderie suffered.
But there’s no denying the fact that The Internship was a weaker version of Wedding Crashers, which is explained by the studio interference. And, ultimately, Vaughn’s thoughts were proven correct by The Internship’s inferior performance at the box office in comparison to the Wilson and Vaughn’s comedic predecessor. The bloody studios; when will they learn? Answer: never.
