Vince Vaughn Interview #DeliveryManEvent

I was provided an all expense paid trip by Disney to Los Angeles.  All opinions are my own.

I recently traveled to Los Angeles to attend the Red Carpet premiere of Delivery Man, which opens in just a few days on November 22nd.  While I was there I had the chance to sit down for a group interview with the film’s star Vince Vaughn!  This was very exciting, since I love so many of his movies.  He was very funny and thoughtful to interview.

The film is about a delivery truck driver who finds out that he is the father of 522 children, thanks, to his donations to a sperm bank years ago.  It is a heartwarming look at what family really means, and seems like kind of a departure for the type of films Vaughn is known for doing. So naturally the first question we asked is why he wanted to do this movie!  It turns out the range of emotions and feelings in the movie was important to him:

Nowadays movies can be just a comedy or just sentimental or, or just a drama, and I think the skillset that, that Ken has, which is very unique, is that it kind of is all of those things in one movie. So, it’s makes it a very unpredictable story. You’re not quite sure what emotion’s gonna come next.  And also I think being a young father the hopes and fears that you have for your kids really is strong in those vignettes.

Since the movie is all about family it makes sense that being a dad helped Vaughn relate to the emotions in the movie.

My second child was conceived during Delivery Man.  And so, you have a kid and you start thinking about a family.  And inevitably you start thinking about well, what should I do for their lives.  You start seeking information about how do I parent. And it just becomes a journey of figuring out what’s the best way to give them skillsets to be successful and, you know, what is the best stuff you can do as a parent.  You start down that journey so strongly.  And I think for me, fortunately, I come from a very close family, and I waited till I was older and I really wanted to be a parent when I got to be a parent.  I’m very invested in it.  So, I think it was very easy to draw on those kind of emotions that were running in me anyway.  I think it became — it was very much at the surface.

We asked Vaughn what his favorite part of working on the movie was, and he said wasn’t one particular scene, but the whole process of working with all the different kids, and co-stars Cobie Smulders and Chris Pratt.

All the kids were just terrific.  I had different unique experiences with them that was great.  And, you know, it’s fun to go be with Chris, ’cause he was so funny.  And the stuff with Cobie was really fun.  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.

He spoke highly of Pratt and Smulders, and how they all bonded over the fact that they are all young parents.

I think one of the things that was so nice was that both of them are really new parents, so I had a captive audience to show my photos to.  And Chris is really sweet and sincere.  You know, he’s a really nice guy and really loves his wife.  It’s nice to see.  And 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, that, that I was; that we were all very grateful still; they’re excited to be working and doing stuff; you know, they’re very balanced.  So, that was fun to be around.

He also talked about his own parents, and how grateful he is that they taught him to value finding something he was passionate about and not just chasing money, and how he hopes he can do the same for his kids.

It’s a very empty thing to chase in life if you’re chasing something outside of yourself, some, some validation or something that you don’t have control over.  So, you wanna make sure with kids that they put a greater focus on how they feel about their approach to what they’re doing than necessarily a grade or a job, or something.  You wanna work hard, but you wanna try to find something that you’re passionate about, and you want results, but you can’t be, you can’t be driven by them.

One of the striking things about the movie is range of personalities that his 533 kids cover.  Some are successful, some are in trouble, and all have different interests.  Vaughn liked dealing with all those different emotions and themes during the filming:

As people, we all have a different sides to ourselves, but I think what happens in life is you find a place where you feel the least threatened where you feel the most comfortable.  So, I’m the smart one; or I’m the athletic one; or I’m the interesting music one.  And 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. And I think what was interesting to me and the exploration through all the different kids is that you realize that all those aspect of kids, we all have each of those sides in us.

This was a great interview, and I was surprised how philosophical Vaughn was, he is clearly has more serious side that hasn’t always come across in his successful movies. Delivery Man is funny, but it is sweet and serious too, which makes for a great movie that takes you through a range of emotions.  It is opening November 22nd everywhere, be sure to check it out!