The Wedding Crashers | Cast & Director Interviews
Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Isla Fisher and director David Dobkin
Q: Where did the idea come from? Have you ever Crashed a Wedding youself?
DD: No but I think if someone would show up at weddings and make them more fun and more entertaining that would be great.
OW: we are hoping that this will set off a whole wave of Wedding Crashing.
Q: Would you like it if someone crashed your wedding?
OW: It depends on the person, you know if some of the people seated next to me here were to crash my wedding – and they would have to crash, [laughter] they wouldn’t be invited, I would probably let bygones be bygones, I would welcome them and shake their hand and let them see I am not holding a dagger.
Q to Isla: I should ask about the more risqué scenes your character is engaged in, you look in total control now but was it slightly daunting to act them?
IF: Yeah it was, I had a body double for the dinner table scene and I had one for the tying up scene, so it definitely was…
VV: We originally did not have a body double for the table scene, David had a thing and it did not quite work out and we had to shoot something different as that was not useable. I had no body for the bed scene.
Q: So, how was it for you Vince?
VV: Which part?
Q: The Bed Scene
VV: Yeah it was fine, well you’re tied up and have nowhere to go.
OW: Living the dream!
VV: No one told me I was going to be filming in heaven in that scene!
Q: Owen and Vince you have great screen chemistry, do you get a kick out of working together?
VV: For me Owen Wilson is a big dollar sign, when I see this guy all I see is a dollar sign, we work well. I say, here’s how it’s going to work amigo – I say something stupid, you’re going to roll your eyes.
OW: Step on your toe
VV: And the guy in the glasses is going to yell “Cut!”
Q: How much did you really ad lib in the film?
VV: It seems as time has passed it depends on who you ask. We went through and rewrote a lot of our scenes, and we rewrote a lot of mine Isla’s scenes as well, like the whole imaginary friend idea. We actually went through and changed the lines so when we performed it, it was not improvising, it was stuff we thought that was better.
OW: A lot of times I find that that’s what makes it more exciting, once you’ve read a line 15 times in a script all of a sudden it’s not as funny, so it is kind of nice if it feels like this atmosphere on set, that you feel comfortable in, and because I’d worked with David before, just the mood he sets you’re comfortable trying things. But a lot of the stuff was planned out before.
Q: David, did you try and keep them in check?
DD: I never try and keep anyone in check, I try and create this space,
OW: Vince told David on the first day, he said “you are the jockey, just hold on and I will give you a movie.”
VV: “You don’t have to win the race just try not to lose it.”
Q to VV: Vince, Isla’s character is pretty scary to a man.
VV. Eye of the beholder brother! [laughter]
Q. I was just wondering if you have been on any scary dates yourself?
VV: Nothing compared to that no, but it was a lot of fun for me, because Isla is very funny and a good actress. It was nice to go into a scene and be the character that is reacting to that, it gave the movie a nice kind of flow, gave the movie a twist. The film is an interesting animal in that it’s a traditional buddy comedy between Owen and myself, but then he has a love story with Rachel and Isla and myself have one, it is good how the stories are all working in different ways, I really enjoyed the way we did our scenes, it was misleading you to where the relationship was going to go.
Q: Isla what is your take on the character?
IF: She’s really obsessed with Jeremy.
Q: Is there anyone you based her on?
IF: Well, I had a friend at school, she had an ex boyfriend, we would drive round to his house at night and she would write him letters and drop them of but I was merely a co-pilot
DD: Yeah your ‘Friend’ – right! [laughter]
Q to Vince: It’s almost a British tradition that men won’t dance, you seemed to relish your dancing.
VV: Was it Winston Churchill who said “Never trust a man who dances” was that him, or was it someone else? It always served me well when I didn’t want to dance, but I think it is fun to dance I like that kind of dancing, I do like ballroom dancing, we took classes to make it look so effortless.
Q: The Media have called you ‘The Frat Pack’ is that just a convenient media term because you hang out with people like Will Ferrell and Jack Black or are you going to be like the original Rat Pack?
OW: Yeah I have seen that written in some places, I think the way it works is, when you are casting a movie, that you try and work with people you believe in and there are a couple of people that have worked together and there have been some overlaps. I think it is less of a sort of sinister plan and more you bet on someone you believe can be funny.
VV: I’ve always found it odd as I’ve never even been in a scene with Jack Black. I think if there’s any kind of common denominator it’s Ben Stiller who hires people for different stuff and it overlaps. This is the first chance me and Owen really had to do stuff together, I had a cameo in Zoolander, and in Starsky and Hutch we had a little bit to do but that was just a taster. Then on this one we really got a chance to do stuff.
Q: Presumably with all you guys being friends off screen, if they came along to you for a cameo you would be more disposed to have a look at it would you?
VV: I guess so yeah it just depends on people you have worked with, I’d done something for Will [Ferrell] and he returned the favour on this film. I find him funny, I don’t think there’s anyone more funny, but there’s no real consciousness where we like to say – ok we are a group of people that are planning to do stuff together.
Q: Does anyone get upset if they are not included?
VV: I don’t think so I think people would prefer not to be asked because a friend in need is a pest.
Q: The lines that you use in the film, have you ever used any chat up lines?
OW: Not so much lines in the way these characters use them.
VV: “Someone took the stars and put them all in your eyes.”
VV: “Your legs must be exhausted. from running through my dreams all day.”
[laughter]
OW: We had a lot to draw on
Q: Isla, what about you what is the worst one you have ever heard?
IF: It’s actually the first one he mentioned!
Q: What sort of comeback did you give?
OW: “Here’s the key to my room”
[laughter]
Q: Owen you seem to say with a smile that there is a lot to draw on; did any of the lines that ended up in the film come from specific personal use?
OW: It was more stuff to crack each other up, about something really corny to come up with, and I know the part where I talk about people only using 10% of their brains and actually we only use 10% of our hearts, that we had already finished filming that sequence and I was sitting around and I thought of that and went and said it to David and he laughed and then he set up the shot so we could shoot it then insert it back.
Q: It is probably not fair to let David of the hook and not ask the cheesiest line you have ever used?
DD: I never pick up girls. or guys! I never had the opportunity to use them so I wouldn’t know. I tell you one time an actress was in make-up and asked “how can I get the director’s phone number?”, so I got picked up on a line. she was a nightmare.
OW: She became Mrs Dobkin!
[laughter]
VV: One man’s nightmare is another man’s dream!
Q: We have established that the term ‘Frat Pack’ is a bit unsuitable, but you are all in and out of each others’ movies, have you decided which one of you would be the alpha male?
VV: Not really no, I think everyone is the Alpha male in their own mind. I say this for me I started with [Jon] Favreau on roles which are more character driven and Owen had done a lot of stuff with Wes [ Anderson ], so I was always excited to work with Owen, I thought he was funny and also a good actor.
And we talked about the improv and all that, it is really a tribute to David Dobkin because a lot of the movies you see don’t have the freshness or feeling of spontaneity so it is really a complement to David’s security to encourage that type of collaboration between all of us actors, I guess that’s what separates Crashers from other movies, I don’t think Wedding Crashers is comparable to other studio movies I have been in.
Wedding Crashers to me is most like the Wes and the Favreau movies where it is very character driven, and the characters kind of go on a journey- you’re rooting for the character, you are emotionally involved with them, the jokes play funny because you feel awkward in the same sort of situations they do.
Q: How do you know when you had anything funny?
VV: Like “You’re money baby”, “Earmuffs” thanks for asking that.
OW: The way that it worked on this movie is that maybe you’d come up with something, and you run it by David see if you can get him to laugh or I would go over to Vince’s trailer and see what he thought of it, or sometimes you would just try and spring it and either the crew would be into it or David would give you a look like ‘what are you doing?’, and you’d try something else! I think that is the best feeling as an actor that I can hope for on a set is that you can feel that it’s loose enough that you can try stuff.
Q: Has dating been a nightmare since your success in the movie business?
VV: I find dating girls is easier once you have opened a movie, [laughter] when you have been on the cover of some magazines, and been in some movies that have been seen by some people, people seem to be charmed by it so contrary to what you might think, it has kind of helped.
OW: Yeah, some days I like to kid myself – gosh, I guess girls are better able to see what a nice guy I am than when I was 23, but then I got this cynical guy [Vince] saying don’t kid yourself Owen, you are not any better looking than you were at 23.
VV: Let’s put on some sweat pants and go down to the strip clubs!
[laughter]
Q: Isla can I ask how much you rate a sense of humour on a man you might be attracted to?
IF: It is pretty important.
OW: Girls always say that
VV: more than the guys who don’t have a job and sleeps on their couch.
Q: I was wondering Vince and Owen if you had a favourite character that you have played?
OW: Probably my favourite movie was the first movie I worked on just because that was the hardest to get made, that was kind of the most important.
Q to OW: Jane Seymour – did you really molest Dr Quinn Medicine Woman or was that a body double?
OW: Well that is what the script called for and Vince was very worried about me that day.
VV: My point was I was terrified I said: “David, I want you to watch the tape of what happened with Siegfried & Roy, ’cause you are out of your damn mind, you’re taking a lion and waving a piece of steak in front of its face, and at a certain point instincts are going to take over.
This old son of a bitch might flip out!”
OW: .and so David used some tranquilisers on me that day and he kept me heavily sedated, I was like Nicholson at the end of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’, I did not know where I was! Dr Quinn was safe that day!
[laughter]
