| By Fred Topel
In Theaters June 2
|
Vince Vaughn has been dodging inquiries from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman about his relationship with Jennifer Aniston. By now, he’s perfected his technique of turning a question about his real life chemistry with Aniston into a description of the development of their movie.
The Break-Up casts Vaughn and Aniston as feuding lovers in a story Vaughn himself has cultivated for a decade. “When we were developing the screenplay, she was the only actor that I had in mind because she's so good with comedy,” Vaughn said. “She's also a very good actor and she also has a quality to her that just inherently she's very likeable. There's a warmth to Jennifer. These characters are both very flawed, so it's important to have that. And when we started the rehearsal process right away, I really was impressed with her acting, her timing, with all of that.”
Aniston’s comic ability was important to Vaugh, because he has been a sort of comedy feminist in recent years. “Unfortunately a lot of times for women, it's like women are stuck in movies just sort of rolling their eyes at whatever the guy does. One thing that I really liked and that me and David [Dobkin] really insisted on in Wedding Crashers is Isla [Fisher]'s really funny in that movie too and it's really both of us and the scenes become funny. I like the comedy to come out of the situation, be grounded in reality, so Jennifer is really the heart of the movie, like Owen is the heart of the movie in Crashers. If she isn't as good of a straight man, as it would be, in this movie, and then also able to be comedic if it calls for it, but never lose that sense of being real and being a real person taking this journey, the whole movie would falter, so she was really instrumental. And yes, I did like her right off the back as a person as well. I think she's terrific.”
Well, at least he admitted that much. He also admitted that as funny as he and his writing partners are, they needed Aniston’s help in balancing the out the male perspective in The Break-Up. “Jen was so important, because we really embraced her ideas and opinions and were open to her affecting the screenplay and the character in a way for the better. Everyone sort of has a say and weighs in and I think the more you're sort of open to that or confident to let that happen, the better the movie can be. I find that sometimes for me as an actor, when I'm just acting, if you work with a director that's very closed off and not open to stuff, a lot of times it's because they're not that confident and it can be detrimental. Most of the guys that I've worked with, or girls, that are good are open to ideas and hearing ideas from wherever they come from. It's just the style that I like to work in.”
Even though it’s about the disintegration of a relationship, The Break-Up does show the couple in some happy times. Their pre-credits courtship and photo montage of kissing shots lets the audience know what is at stake in this break-up.
“The photos where done over the course of shooting, because they were very location-dependent, so it would be way too difficult to say 'Let's drive to here, to here, to here.' So we would just get photos ongoing as we went, if we were at a location, we would just take a photo. Some we use, some we don't. It was really a way to kind of like, especially with the song being ‘Best friend’ too, showing that all of us can relate to pictures that were taken from relationship. Even ones, then, when you're broken up, you can look at pictures and kind of remember times and feelings and places you were at. So we thought, you know, kind of have a photo album, a collage, with this song, just sort of say, 'There's some time and some history past' and these are experiences, without having to spend a lot exposition time in the screenplay because our movie was very different from the focus of most of these movies.”
Fans will have to settle for those still shots, because there was no time in Act One for a full on love scene. “Our movie was more about a break-up. Plot Point One, in a very traditional screenplay writing form, is that the characters break up with each other. And you find that she breaks up really because she felt like she had no choice, hoping he changed and then he goes and talks to Johnny O and you realize he's very concerned about his ego and his perception that maybe he can't trust her, maybe there is more to this than just breaking up, maybe there is other people involved and stuff. There were no love scenes because it really wasn't on story. The story was more about what happens when communication breaks down and everyday life obligations sort of get the best of two people and their own immaturity.”
The Break-Up opens June 2. |
