Vince Vaughn: USA Today

Vince Vaughn on the upswing
USA TODAY
By Elizabeth Snead
10/02/98

LOS FELIZ, Calif. — After Swingers, Vince Vaughn couldn't go anywhere without hearing "You're so money" or "beautiful babies" — snippets of his lounge lizard character's hepcat patter.

He needed an image change.

In both his new films — Clay Pigeons, expanding to more cities today, and the upcoming Psycho, opening Dec. 4 — Vaughn again plays lady killers. But this time, in the literal sense of the word.

"It wasn't a plan at all," Vaughn, 28, explains, slumping low in a booth at Mexico City, a colorful cantina within stumbling distance of his Los Feliz apartment.

"Had I known there was going to be a Psycho, I probably wouldn't have done Clay Pigeons, because I wouldn't have wanted to play two serial killers — especially female serial killers," he admits. "Now I'll need to get away from that!"

At 6-foot-5, Vaughn is never-ending legs. He doesn't simply stand up, he unfolds. Today the baby-faced actor has some stubble going on and his eyes look a bit bleary — all understandable as he has a touch of stomach flu. Sipping Coke to settle things, Vaughn explains his choices.

"My agency didn't want me to do Pigeons because they wanted me to go for higher-profile films after Lost World. But I thought the material was interesting, and it was a first-time director. I can relate to that journey because of Swingers, and I get excited by it."

Excited enough to imbue his Pigeon serial killer, Lester, with some aw-shucks-ma'am mannerisms and a smidgen of Hank Williams neighborliness coated with Ted Bundy charm.

But Psycho was an offer Vaughn couldn't refuse. "There is a handful of directors I would love to work with. Gus Van Sant is one of them."

Vaughn first saw Alfred Hitchcock's classic slasher on video when he was 8. "My sister was a big horror fan, and she brought it home. It scared the hell out of me."

He was equally frightened to take on the part of the ultimate Mama's boy until he found his Norman Bates. "With Perkins signing his work so beautifully, I figured I would just go in with my own interpretation and not try to mimic him."

He scoffs at the notion that the original Psycho was so great, it shouldn't be remade. "Too many people look at this film with sort of a religious point of view," he says. "Songs are done by different artists. Shakespeare has been reinterpreted time and time again. Because you've seen a great Hamlet, does that mean you shouldn't ever see another one?"

Given that Tony Perkins never escaped the specter of Bates, is he worried about being typecast? "It was different for actors back then," Vaughn says. "Nowadays people are rewarded for playing different characters, whereas before you always wanted to see John Wayne be John Wayne. But time will tell. Who knows what will happen?"

That level-headed take comes from a guy with solid Midwestern roots. Born in Minneapolis, Vaughn grew up in the Chicago 'burbs. He was Vernon and Sharon's last double V. His sisters are Valerie and Victoria. Even the family dogs were named Viking, Vero and Vladimir.

"My mom liked my dad's initials, so she just figured she'd give all the kids and the dogs double Vs," he explains.

Vaughn found acting early, doing community theater. But a serious acting career came by default. "My grades were awful," Vaughn admits. "My counselor told me I should get a job with my hands because college wasn't for everyone. The only positive feedback I got was from acting."

After high school, he joined an improv group in Chicago, made the casting agency rounds, landed a part in a national Chevrolet (Heartbeat of America) commercial. His first film was a sex-ed short; he played the guy trying to talk his girlfriend into sex.

When he moved to L.A. eight years ago, doors weren't exactly flying open. He had bit parts on TV but was agentless for two years, which, for an aspiring actor, is like being dead.

In '93, he became pals with fellow Chicagoan Jon Favreau, who'd left his girlfriend behind when he moved to L.A. "He was depressed, so I took him to places, The Dresden Room and Three of Clubs, where I hung out, not the hard-to-get-into Beverly Hills clubs."

From that experience, Favreau penned Swingers, about wanna-be actors searching for success and love in Hollywood's swing dance/piano bar scene. Vaughn basically played himself, playing himself.

He never thought anyone would see it. "I thought I'd get some good tape out of it so I could get an agent."

Instead, he got noticed by Steven Spielberg and cast in a small part in The Lost World. He's been working ever since.

His next career direction is West. He hopes to do Favreau's The Marshal of Revelation, about a Hassidic gunfighter, next year. And he's excited about an untitled cowboy film written by pal Dwight Yoakam. He just did a swing music video for Yoakam, too.

And he doesn't hang at The Dresden Room anymore. "It's not the same for me," he says. "I'm like the guy who graduated college, and I've come back two years later in my letterman jacket, hanging out in the local pickup bar."

In person, Vaughn seems nothing like his Swingers smooth-talker. But he has been linked romantically with his leading ladies, including Ashley Judd and Janeane Garofalo.

But Vaughn insists he's no Romeo. He just likes women, even as pals. That's what fueled rumors he and Anne Heche were an item during the filming of Return to Paradise. "We hung out and were totally comfortable putting our arms around each other, kidding around, joking. But nothing ever happened between us."

His current girlfriend is former co-star Joey Lauren Adams, whom he met four years ago at a bar. "I like her a lot. I think she's so sweet," Vaughn says. "I think more than anything, we're just real close friends. I mean, yes, there is a relationship, but I think the strongest thing is we get along and are comfortable with each other."

So, no marriage? Not right now.

"But I want kids more than anything," he adds emphatically. "I really want kids. Being the youngest, I didn't have the opportunity to be the older brother. I like to play games and do stuff. I enjoy that."

Vaughn pauses. Then he grins that grin. "I'm still very much a kid."