Vince Vaughn has an eclectic body of work, ranging from horror to action thrillers to comedy. While he’s recently been showing up in more serious movies, like Dragged Across Concrete, he’s still widely known for his comedy, such as the newly-released horror romp Freaky. So it’s now pretty hilarious when you hear that the studio was concerned about Vince Vaughn signing on to star in Old School.
Old School, the Todd Philips-directed comedy made waves back in 2003, and it gave Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell’s careers a nice boost. But if DreamWorks Pictures had its way, Vince Vaughn might not have been cast. Vaughn recently told GQ that Todd Phillips had to convince those in charge to keep him on. Here’s what he said:
Todd’s a terrific writer and great with comedy. The part that was really interesting was the studio didn’t know if I could do comedy. Cause’ at that point having done Swingers and Lost World I just sort of instinctually gravitated to more kind of character-based stuff (Return to Paradise, Clay Pigeons). I had been doing much more smaller indies. But I hadn’t done a lot of mainstream comedy. I think he maybe had to show them an interview I did on a talk show or something to make them comfortable that I could do the comedy. That was interesting for me because I had come from comedy.
This actually makes a lot of sense. At the time, Vince Vaughn had become more noticeable for his performances in The Lost World and in horror movies like the Psycho remake and The Cell. You can’t really blame the studio for judging him from his recent work. Fortunately, Todd Phillips knew better.
At the same time, it’s hard to imagine the 1996 comedy Swingers being a reason the studio wouldn't want him to be in the comedy. Sure, Swingers isn't Old School-style comedy, but he still was pretty funny in the movie and showed a lot of charisma. When it was released, Swingers made a big impact on the movie community, even though it was a relatively small film by a couple of unknowns at the time, namely Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. But once it landed, it put them on the map.
It was Old School, though, that set the comedy course for Vince Vaughn. Afterward, he appeared in more comedies, like Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Wedding Crashers, and he later re-teamed with Jon Favreau in Couples Retreat. Of those comedies, he’s said Wedding Crashers might get a sequel, as they’re in early talks with a “pretty good” idea.
If I’m being honest though, with Old School hitting its 20th anniversary here soon, I’d say that movie getting a sequel with the whole cast returning would be quite a treat. Plus, now that they’re all older, it would certainly lend itself closer to the name.
