We've always known—and loved—Vince Vaughn as a bachelor, on and off the big screen. These days, however, the man we knew is all grown up. He's traded in appearances in the tabloids for a very private engagement (he's talking about kids!), and he's headlining a film that explores the trials of marriage and family. We love Couples Retreat not for its sometimes raunchy physical humor but for its honest look at relationships...and, of course, Vaughn's signature hilarious monologues. Come on, we didn't say he's totally matured...
Rachel Bertsche: The pairs in Couples Retreat have really relatable, I've-been-there sorts of problems. You've never been married, so how did you manage to accurately portray the different ruts that married couples fall into?

Vince Vaughn: Recently, for the first time, I decided that something I actively wanted was to be married and have kids. I always thought I would like to have kids someday, but it became a priority of mine just recently, and I met someone and I'm engaged now…

RB: Congratulations!

VV: Thank you. I met her through a close friend of mine's wife—my fiancé is her best friend—so it was a really nice way to meet someone. I started thinking, "What really makes a relationship work?" When you're younger, you feel like work is work and relationships are supposed to be easy. As you get older, you realize you have to work at relationships to make them sustainable. So my thoughts for this movie went to, "I've seen a lot of movies that are just about one relationship, but what about the dynamic of couples?" We all have our groups of friends. If you have a good girlfriend who's married or dating someone new, you really want the guys to get along. Then you end up with this new group and it's fun to do stuff together, whether it's a barbecue or going to a game or going away together for a weekend. You end up with a very specific dynamic, and it's always easy to see other couples' problems and what they could do to fix it. You never can see what's going on with yourself. That's always the way it is. So I said, "Let's take some relatable people—I set them in the suburbs of Chicago—who get to go to an exceptional location. Give them common problems, a familiar group dynamic, and send them to a place that's supposedly full of experts on couples." I always hear of these corporate retreats where they take people from a corporation for a weekend and they do, I don't know, trust falls or potato sack races, and I'm like, "Does that really help them sell more stuff?" It just sounds funny to me. So I thought, "What if there was a place where instead of a corporate retreat, it was a retreat for couples where they're doing all these crazy activities supposedly meant to bring them together?" Then we have the theme be, not unlike The Wizard of Oz, the answer isn't in some far off place or through some expert. The answer is really inside ourselves. It's about looking in the mirror and being honest about what we want in life and what our priorities are. Because once you're willing to ask for those things, the power is really inside you.
Published 10/02/2009

NEXT STORY

Next Story