*I attended this event as a guest of Disney/Marvel/Dreamworks and any opinions are 100% my own.
Delivery Man hits theaters on November 22nd and I can’t wait to see it a third a time! While in LA recently, for the #DeliveryManEvent, we got the chance to sit down with funny man and father, Vince Vaughn! I was not expecting him to be so TALL, charming, friendly, and real. He chatted with us about filming Delivery Man, working with Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders, and about being a father. I hope you enjoy reading his answers as much as I enjoyed listening to him tell them.
Vince Vaughn Delivery Man Interview
Question: Why did you decide to take the role as David Wozniak?
Answer: The director is a very passionate storyteller, and what he is doing with this story is really unique and inspiring. It’s not an overly obvious way in to some very kind of sentimental and universal feelings about parenthood and also about life. Acceptance, you know, accepting yourself, and all those kinda things. It starts with this kind of big concept. But what’s interesting is nowadays movies can be just a comedy or just sentimental or just a drama. The skill set that Ken, the director has, which is very unique, is that it kind of is all of those things in one movie. It makes it a very unpredictable story. You’re not quite sure what emotion’s gonna come next. Being a young father, the hopes and fears that you have for your kids really is strong in those vignettes. In a way, it’s like all the things that you kinda go through as a parent, but in a very unique way, and so it kinda cracks you open. What’s very moving to Vince Vaughn is the relationship between him and the child in the wheelchair. What he really liked about the character from the beginning and what he can relate to sometimes, is he doesn’t know how to love that child. It’s not that he doesn’t love the kid but he, he doesn’t know his value in that situation. When he first wants to leave it’s actually because he’s intimidated. He doesn’t have the self-confidence to say “how do I express affection or warmth?”.
Question: You mentioned being a dad. How did being a dad affect how you took on the role?
Answer: You’re so cracked open as a parent to those things. Vaughn had his second child during Delivery Man. So, you have a kid and you start thinking about a family and inevitably you start thinking about well, what should we do for their lives. You start seeking information about how do you parent. Temporary words vs permanent words. It just becomes a journey of figuring out what’s the best way to give them skill sets to be successful and what is the best stuff you can do as a parent. You start down that journey so strongly and for him, fortunately, he comes from a very close family, and waited till he was older and he really wanted to be a parent when he got to be a parent. It was very easy to draw on those kind of emotions that were running in him anyway. It was very much at the surface.
Photo Credit: MomStart.com
Question: This is a very family-friendly movie and I would take my family to see it. That is kind of a departure from the movies that you’ve made in the past. Are you actively trying to make more family-friendly movies, something that your family could see in the future?
Answer: He wouldn’t say he is actively doing it, but Delivery Man was nice because it was kind of a return to doing more grounded performances, which he used to do and not so broad. That was exciting and he thinks the time in his life particularly made him excited about investigating parenthood. This partnership is important, too and the best thing you can do as a father for your kid is to love the mom in that it shows him what a good relationship should be. There’s so much teaching that’s not really downloading information that’s just by example. It gives them harmony in the house. It’s interesting for Cobie Smulder’s character and Vaughn’s character to kind of figure out how they see each other, what are the expectations. He finds relationships to really be about communicating and expectations. What do you expect the other person to do and how do you communicate so that you’re both understanding what those expectations are. Once you start breaking expectations, and if you’re not understanding what the other person wants, then trust can get broken. It’s interesting that Vaughn’s character kind of comes to a place of accepting who he is.
Question: Were you able to ad-lib at all or was it all fully scripted?
Answer: It’s pretty much all scripted. There are a couple places where Vaughn added some lines, but it was nice to go and just give a performance and work off the script. There was a couple places where they played around. A lot of the ultrasound was just sort of played, but that’s based on his experience.
Photo Credit: MomStart.com
Question: Did you draw anything from parenthood at that point in your life to filming?
Answer: It’s an interesting thing with parenting; isn’t it? It’s like people have to learn their lessons and they have to have their experiences. It’s important for them to do that, so, you have to give them the space to do that. At the same, you, you want to hopefully be able to guide and steer and be there so it doesn’t have to be too harsh of a lesson; right?
Question: Did you have a particular moment that you really enjoyed shooting the most that sort of stood out to you more than other parts, a favorite scene?
Answer: There are so many moments. All the kids were just terrific. He had different, unique experiences with them that were great. It’s fun to go be with Chris because he was so funny. The stuff with Cobie was really fun. He can’t say that there was just one, one particular day, because they were all kind of unique. It was nice to have a variety of things to do so it didn’t feel like the same kind of tone every day. It was nice to have some funny scenes, but it was nice to kind of have some more heartfelt scenes. It was nice to have the different types of the scenes that they had.
Question: Cobie and Chris, talked so highly of you and just said how sincere you are and you’re just like this great heart and you’re so not hollow, and they really loved you. So, how was it for you to work with them?
Answer: I hate those guys. 😉 He would say the same about them. One of the things that was so nice was that both of them are really new parents, so heI had a captive audience to show his photos to. “Hey, look, there’s my dog, you know.” Chris is really sweet and sincere, he’s a really nice guy and really loves his wife. It’s nice to see. The same with Cobie, and her husband’s so nice. And both of their spouses are very nice. They’re just excited parents, so that was fun. It was fun to be making this movie with people who are at a similar stage that he was.
Question: Out of 533 children, who’s your favorite?
Answer: Love ‘em all the same. All those actors were just so wonderful and so excited, you know. There’s something in that, the enthusiasm that they had and commitment to do a great job that he found inspiring. The girl who gets the job at Bloomingdales, it was just tremendous to watch her work every day and put herself through that in such a real way. It was really powerful. The actor that played the child in the wheelchair…..it’s just remarkable the command of his body, the physicality that he had. They all did a really nice job, you know. There’s something really loving about all of ‘em; right? There’s a hope in them still that’s young and the same is true as an actor. It’s like young actors similar to young people hopefully have some optimism and they have some dreams in them, and there’s something inspiring, about seeing that innocence, you know, before you find out that things are very complicated in the world, of course. Right? But there’s that purity that, that they have that was a fun place to work with.
Question: What kind of gifts you would ask for Father’s Day from your 533 kids?
Answer: Maybe if you got 533 kids, you can ask for a Father’s Day alone. 😉 “I love you guys so much this is my day. No one talk to me.” 533 would be a lot of a lot of conversations.
Question: Having filming this and having 534 kids now, does that affect how many kids you want?
Answer: I’m open to more kids and his wife has informed him that while someone is breastfeeding, that’s not a conversation that you should have. He started older in life, and when you do start to do the math in your head, let’s say, like for him, it was a big deal when he finally was able to beat his parents in something, but these kids will be killing me pretty quick here, because I’m older than they were. But, he’s open to having more and they’ll kinda see what happens. He’s thankful for the two kids that they have, and if another kid comes along, he would be, thrilled for sure.
Question: There is a pedicure scene in the movie. Do you get pedicures a lot?
Answer: Yeah. No, that was acting, but like it was an easy thing to kinda go, okay, this could tickle, because he can be ticklish. But, no, he doesn’t He didn’t even get one till he was way later in life. It just wasn’t popular where he is from. He’s only done it in his life maybe once or twice as the thing to go do, but he think it’s nice. He’ll probably let his daughter paint his feet. That day is coming. She likes to get her nails painted.
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/V1lZKDNJ4aQ?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>]
Question: Which actor or actress do you feel like you connected with the most in filming this movie?
Answer: Not trying to be diplomatic, but he really felt like the whole way, he felt connected to all of them. Cobie was tremendous with her point of view and so honest and same with Chris. Chris was so committed to his part. He put on all that weight. And then those kids, it was just easy to put yourself in those circumstances. There’s something that you realize that, as people, we all have a different sides to ourselves, but what happens in life is you find a place where you feel the least threatened, where you feel the most comfortable. “I’m the smart one; or I’m the athletic one; or I’m the interesting music one.” You kind of find one identity within yourself to put forward, because that’s where you feel kind of the safest interacting, and sometimes we don’t cultivate. We all have a lot of other sides to ourselves, but we, we weren’t rewarded for bringing those forward, or we don’t feel comfortable with that. And so, you kind of push those things aside and you go with the one that kind of is the path of least resistance. What was interesting to Vaughn and the exploration through all the different kids, is that you realize that all those aspect of kids, we, we all have each of those sides inside of us, you know. You know what’s it like to be taken advantage of; to really care about someone that didn’t value you; or to feel like you’re good at something; or, you know, have something that you’re challenged by that makes you feel different, whatever that is. Ultimately what was nice about it was the whole thing kind of added up to one individual in a way, you know, extreme physicalizations of feelings that are kind of inside all of us. A nice thing as a person is to try and allow yourself to be comfortable exploring those other sides of yourself.
Stay social with Delivery Man so you don’t miss a minute of the action! We also have a #DeliveryManEvent Twitter Party coming up on November 21st and you have the chance to WIN Prizes!
Like Delivery Man on Facebook: Facebook.com/DeliveryManMovie
Follow Delivery Man on Twitter: @DeliveryManFilm
Follow Delivery Man on Pinterest: Pinterest.com/DeliveryManFilm
Follow Delivery Man on Instagram: DeliveryManMovie
Follow Delivery Man on Tumblr: deliverymanmovie.tumblr.com/
PS: Thank you Vince Vaughn for being completely awesome during your interview, making a fantastic movie, and spending a few seconds taking photos with all of us!
Photo Credt: MomStart.com and Dreamworks
*I attended this event as a guest of Disney/Marvel/Dreamworks and any opinions are 100% my own.
Leave a Reply