Video:Couples Retreat - Vince Vaughn, Tasha Smith Interviews
with Rebecca MurrayVince Vaughn came up with the idea for 'Couples Retreat,' talked his buddy Jon Favreau into co-writing the screenplay, and then set off to Bora Bora to film the relationship comedy. At the premiere, Vaughn joined his co-stars to talk about the movie.
Transcript:Couples Retreat - Vince Vaughn, Tasha Smith Interviews
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the American Premiere of Universal Pictures' Couples Retreat.
Vince Vaughn – Co-Writer and 'Dave' in Couples Retreat
Vince, you're friends with all the guys but the girls are new to this. How tough was it to get the girls cast?
Vince Vaughn: "Well, the girls were great. People that we wanted to be in the movie - they're all good actresses. They are very funny and they all came in and contributed a lot."
How was filming in Bora Bora?
Vince Vaughn: "Seeing that beautiful ocean every day and the sun shining, it ain't easy. I think the fun of it is you take a bunch of people from the Midwest where it's flat and it's cold who would never get a chance to go to a place like that, and I think the fun is the people that get to go there that are kind of a fish out of water in that setting."
If you could go anywhere for a couples retreat, where would you go?
Vince Vaughn: "If I could go anywhere, I'd go to Bora Bora. It's spectacular, that's why we picked the place. You have to see it. I mean that's sort of the fun, and I think we show it well in the movie, that you really get to see the huts on the water and the extent of it. And I think it was being Favreau and myself and the girls – Kristin Davis – it's a fun group of people to see the settings with."
Tasha Smith – 'Jennifer' in Couples Retreat
Working in this movie, what was that like?
Tasha Smith: "It was like working with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau and Faizon Love and Jason Bateman and all of that – that's what it was."
It was a horrible experience, in other words.
Tasha Smith: "It was horrible… No, it was the best experience of my life. Yes, it was. It was the best experience of my life because they're fun, they're creative. They know how to have a good time."
And they give you lots of freedom, right?
Tasha Smith: "They give you so much freedom. That's one thing about Vince. I mean, he's an actor, you know Peter Billingsley is an actor and an actor's director, so they allowed us to just have fun. We played and we just had a great time. It was wonderful. I thank them for welcoming me to the party."
It's kind of a boys club with them.
Tasha Smith: "But they invited me. I'm happy to go. I said, 'Do you need me to bring some collard greens or something? I'll bring it.'"
Everybody had such a good time on this, but there was work getting done too, right?
Tasha Smith: "There was work getting done, and you'll see it in the film that there was many working being done. It was so much fun. It was great."
And you're reuniting with Tyler Perry?
Tasha Smith: "I am. I just did Why Did I Get Married Too?. We finished the film and it's going to be a ride."
Dana Fox – Co-Writer of Couples Retreat
When you're writing a script with Vince and Jon how do you make sure your voice got heard?
Dana Fox: "I'm not even sure if that ever happened. I don't know. I tried. I just did the best that I could. The great thing about everybody on the movie, including Vince and Jon, is that everybody is incredibly collaborative. They know that the best idea wins. So you just try to really stay loose and have fun. I remember when we first started working together Vince would say, 'Okay, we're going to do some role playing stuff and I'm going to play this and you're going to play that.' And I'm like, 'Oh God, I don't know what you're talking about. You're like a movie star and a comedian so that may work for you, but I'm a writer. I work with computers.' But then by the end of it, I was like, 'I'm the guy who walks into the bar and says the thing.' You get into it. And Vince has really just pushed me so hard. He pushes me out of planes and he says, 'You can handle it. You can do it,' and so he pushed me really hard to just kind of go with it and learn on my feet. It was a pretty crazy experience."
What happens when you're writing the script and you have these characters down, and then all of a sudden they do so much improv on the set? Does that bother you at all or are you fine with that?
Dana Fox: "Oh my God, not at all. I think that's the most exciting thing in the world. I'm not a writer who has any ego about what I'm doing. I just want to make great movies and this was a really collaborative environment. And so, for me, watching great improv just means that the material sparked something and got people excited enough to do great improv. So I was the first person behind the monitors to just be like, 'Oh my God, that was gold! You have to do that again. It was incredible.'"