Vaughn's inspiration is ... himself

Ben Stiller says he joined cast of The Watch to have fun with other actors

HOLLYWOOD — Vince Vaughn didn’t need to get into character to play a family man facing middle age. He really only had to look in the mirror.

In The Watch, opening Friday, the 42-year-old is a dad distraught over his boy-crazy daughter dating.

Now that he’s a father himself, Vaughn finds himself gazing down the same anxiety-fraught road toward adolescence.

“I had a toddler ringing the doorbell asking for her to come out,” says Vaughn who got married in 2010 to Kyla Weber, a Calgary real estate agent, and welcomed daughter Locklyn Kyla later that year.

“I said it’s a little inappropriate. You gotta let them make their own decisions. They gotta walk before they can fly.”

In The Watch, he reteams with Ben Stiller to head up an ensemble including Jonah Hill and newcomer Richard Ayoade. Together they form a neighbourhood watch after a security guard at the local Costco is murdered. As one clue leads to another, a trail of green slime takes them to an alien plan to take over Earth. What drew the Wedding Crashers star to the role, he says, was the friendship his character has with his daughter.

“She’s going down a road that he’s not comfortable with,” he says. “You can tell that they have a real nice thing between them but it’s being tested in this time.”

Less concerned about neighbourhood safety than just having someone to hang out with, Vaughn’s character joins the watch just to break the monotony.

“I think that’s something that’s relatable for all of us,” Vaughn says. “You love your family and you’re invested in it, but it is nice to take a break and get some perspective.”

For most involved, The Watch represents a reunion. Stiller and

Vaughn have appeared together in numerous comedies such as

Dodgeball and Starsky & Hutch, while Stiller and Hill shared a few moments on screen in A Night at

the Museum 2.

“I felt like it would be the ability of us to have fun with each other,” Stiller says when asked why he decided to join the cast. “If we’re actually enjoying the process, hopefully that will translate.”

Many of the movie’s funniest moments were improvised. To capture the best bits, director Akiva Schaffer would run a few takes without the cameras rolling, just to get the kinks out of his cast.

Once the actors warmed up, Schaffer rolled cameras to catch scenes like a profane heart to heart between Stiller and Vaughn about low sperm count. Formerly of Saturday Night

Live, Schaffer made his name directing video shorts for the show with buddies Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone.

One of the key challenges was nailing the tone, which slides between frat- boy humour and sci-fi thrills.

“When people come to a movie like this they want to laugh and they’re not necessarily looking for us to be these bad-ass hero guys,” Stiller says. “It’s sort of finding the tone and trying to find humour within all those action moments that feel like it’s still part of the same movie.”

Where Stiller takes a cerebral approach to comedy, Vaughn likes to keep it simple.

“The fun thing with comedies is laughing,” Vaughn says.

“Sometimes it’s really good just to go and not take things seriously and get a chance to laugh.”

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