Vince Vaughn at the premiere of “Bad Monkey” at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum … (+)
Variety via Getty Images
He’s the go-to guy you can count on to deliver the most shocking and memorable laughs. From popular comedies like Old School and Wedding Crashers, actor Vince Vaughn has had a pretty unique career trajectory, including notable dramatic roles in the Oscar-nominated film Hacksaw Ridge and the second season of HBO’s True Detective series.
With his latest project, Bad Monkey, currently streaming on Apple TV+, Vaughn has found a project where he can effectively combine his comedic and dramatic talents. Based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 book, Vaughn plays the lead character, Andrew Yancey, a former detective turned restaurant inspector in the Florida Keys who encounters a strange case and decides to take it upon himself to investigate.
With Hiaasen’s book being adapted for TV by The Shrinking and Ted Lasso showrunner Bill Lawrence, I sat down with Vaughn to find out what it was about the Bad Monkey story that made him feel like this Apple TV+ series was a quality next project in his elaborate career.
Vaughn said, “Carl Hiaasen is a fantastic writer and the book is so cool. And Bill Lawrence is awesome. I’ve actually known Bill for over 25 years. We used to play poker together as kids. He’s a stand-up comedian and he’s so funny. I’ve been a fan of his from afar and I’ve watched all his shows and really enjoy his work. So when he approached me about this I was super excited because I knew he was the best person as a storyteller to pull this off. What I love about this (series) is that the danger is real, the crime is real, but the characters are complex and interesting.”
Bill Lawrence and Vince Vaughn attended Vince Vaughn’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony in August. … (+)
Getty Images for AppleTV+
I also spoke with Lawrence and asked him why Bad Monkey was the right project for him to take on next, after decades of bringing fan-favorite TV series to the big screen, like Scrubs and Cougar Town.
Lawrence said, “There are two things. One is personal, the other is professional. Carl Hiaasen is one of the reasons I’m a storyteller. I didn’t read a lot of classical literature, but I read his books when I was 15 or 16 years old. There’s something about Carl’s surreal satire and crazy character behavior that connects directly to the fantasy of Scrubs and Scrubs. I’ve reached the final stage of my life as a TV writer. It’s a passion project, so I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I have to go to my favorite writer and have a couple of drinks with him. Because he’s definitely cynical about Hollywood, and nobody’s ever really represented his work well. He’s like, ‘My whole Hollywood experience is apologizing for a dud on a book tour.’ So it’s nerve-wracking for me again, because I care about all the shows. But I know the game so well that when something like this happens, I get a little nervous. He was my hero, so I get really nervous about wanting him to be happy.’
Vince Vaughn and Natalie Martinez in “Bad Monkey”
Apple TV+
He added: “The professional reason is that the kind of entertainment stuff that I loved was no longer being made. I loved ‘Midnight Run,’ ’48 Hours,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ ‘Out of Sight,’ all of those cool, funny, tongue-in-cheek crime character pieces.”
So Vaughn has had a hugely popular career as an actor over the past 30 years, but how do you think your perspective on acting, the entertainment industry and being an executive producer (you also serve as a producer on Bad Monkey ) has evolved most over time?
Vaughn responded, “That’s a good question. I think when I do something, I want to be excited, I want to challenge myself. It’s fun to do different things, different genres. I feel like I want to go on all the rides at the amusement park. You don’t want to stay in one area, so I like to do different things and put myself in different atmospheres. This project was really unique. It’s a hard project to get the right atmosphere, to really immerse yourself in crime and reality. But the characters are interesting and have interesting personalities. So I felt it was a big, fun, interesting world that combined fun and realistic elements.”
Vince Vaughn in “Bad Monkey”
Apple TV+
He added, “Bill’s a fantastic writer. To be honest, the script that he and Matt[Tarses]who I’m writing with, wrote was pretty much scripted. We improvised and acted out a lot of stuff. It’s got a lot of great actors in it. It was just a lot of fun to read.”
With Lawrence already having three seasons of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+, and the highly anticipated second season of The Shrink set to debut on October 16, we were curious as to why Apple TV+ continues to be the perfect home for his latest TV show.
Lawrence said, “Jeff, when you do what you do, one of the first things you learn is that it’s a business. Hollywood is a business, it’s not a place. So you don’t always have partnerships. Ted Lasso worked, and I try to remind people that Apple was the only one who bought it. Not just Apple’s success, but Apple wanted us to succeed. And they really rooted for me. Bad Monkey exists because it was my passion, not because everyone in the world was trying to buy it. I said, ‘Hey, I need you to trust me with this,’ and they gave me a chance. So it’s a really good relationship for me. I still love doing shows here and there, but it was really fun!”
(From left) Reese Antoinette, L. Scott Caldwell, Brian Thomas Smith, Charlotte Lawrence, and Giselle … (+)
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As I ended my conversation with Vaughn, I wondered what he would say to his character Andrew, if he could, after playing the stubborn but well-meaning investigator in Bad Monkey.
Vince Vaughn in “Bad Monkey”
Apple TV+
Vaughn said, “Well, I don’t want to give any spoilers away to anybody, but one of the things I love about Andrew is his tenacity. He just keeps going no matter what the challenges are, no matter what the obvious obstacles are. No matter how hard it gets, he just follows that mission and keeps going. So, I love those qualities of him, but I also think, like all of us, he has room to grow in other areas.”