In the early 1990s, when Vince Vaughn and Bill Lawrence were hungry 20-somethings trying to make it in show business, they met at a poker game hosted by a mutual friend in Los Angeles. Vaughn hadn’t yet made his break in “Swingers” or told Jon Favreau he was “so rich you don’t even realize it.” Lawrence hadn’t yet co-created “Spin City,” the ABC comedy starring Michael J. Fox as New York City’s witty deputy mayor.
“Some nights I had to decide whether I was going to eat Subway or whether I was going to eat noodles in a cup,” Vaughn recalled.
Lawrence, whose new series, the crime adventure film “Bad Monkey,” premieres Wednesday on Apple TV+, and Vaughn, who stars in the series as a well-intentioned police detective who can’t get out of his own way, quickly realized they had something in common beyond their mutual modest means: They both had a way with words. A way with gab. A talent for extending a verbal riff. In a joint video interview, Lawrence recalled the time he got up from the poker table to pay the pizza delivery guy only to hear Vaughn’s voice behind him: “Hey, Bill, does he have a sparkle in his eye? Ask him if he likes musical theater.”
It’s funny now, in large part, because we can hear the words in Vaughn’s seemingly tireless voice, a familiar sound from comedies like “Wedding Crashers,” “Old School” and “Dodgeball.” But back then, they were just a couple of poker buddies having fun. A few years later, when Lawrence saw Vaughn as the charlatan Trent in “Swingers,” he felt a joyous thrill of recognition. There was his old friend, being “money” on the big screen.
Bill Lawrence, left, and Vince Vaughn on the set of “Bad Monkey.”
(John Brawley/Apple)
“It made me really happy, not only because I had seen Vince before, but because I saw that this is what entertainment can be,” Lawrence said. “You could make a joke with your friends with the [stuff] “You do it when you're jumping and joking around, and it could actually become part of your art.”
They saw each other around town over the years as they both rose to fame. Vaughn became a bankable comedy star, even branching into drama with titles like “Brawl in Cell Block 99” and the second season of the HBO crime anthology “True Detective.” Lawrence created TV series like “Scrubs” and “Ted Lasso,” shows that demonstrate a facility for jokes akin to screwball comedy. But they never got to work together, at least not until “Bad Monkey” came calling.
As you might imagine, interviewing Lawrence and Vaughn isn’t like pulling teeth. At one point, they start asking each other questions. They talk about the value of taking risks, about the jobs they had before they found success (Lawrence painted houses, Vaughn was a telemarketer), about their appreciation for Carl Hiaasen (the dean of Florida crime novelists, who wrote the 2013 book on which “Bad Monkey” is based). And there was the time when country music’s biggest star invited the poker gang to dinner. Sort of.
“We had a friend who worked for ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers]“He would order dinner and deduct it. I would say, ‘Oh my God, this is so nice. Thank you for ordering this.’ And he would say, ‘Don’t thank me. Thank Garth Brooks.’”
Neville (Ronald Peet) with the monkey that gives the program its name.
(Apple)
In “Bad Monkey,” Vaughn plays Andrew Yancy, who, surprisingly, likes to talk. He also likes to sabotage his own career as a Florida Keys police detective — at least until he gets suspended and relegated to health inspector duties. Then a fishing tourist picks up a human arm with its middle finger extended. Yancy suspects a greedy cutthroat (Meredith Hagner) of playing dirty and claims the arm belongs to her late husband. There’s also action in the Bahamas, where a local named Neville (Ronald Peet) wants to cling to the simple life with his pet monkey (bad) amid a shady real estate heist..
Yancy also finds time to fall for a Miami medical examiner, Rosa (Natalie Martinez), whom he charms despite the fact that “she's a little older and talks too much”; and an unhappily married woman, Bonnie (Michelle Monaghan), who is on the run from the law for reasons completely unrelated to her.
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1. Rosa (Natalie Martinez), left, one of Andrew's love interests. (Apple) 2. Eve (Meredith Hagner) believes the severed arm at the center of the first episode belongs to her husband. (Bob Mahoney/Apple)
Lawrence recalled his initial conversations with Hiaasen, who was also a consulting producer on the series, about casting Yancy. They agreed, as Lawrence said, that “he should be imposing and a little bit dangerous and have the ability to be a little bit menacing, and he should be someone who makes bad decisions. He’s sharp-tongued and edgy and sarcastic, but the show doesn’t work unless you root for him and want him to win and want to be able to spend time with him.”
In other words, it would have to be someone like Lawrence’s old poker buddy, a big guy (or, as his character in “Made” describes himself, “a big drink of water”), a bit rough around the edges but quick to display a disarming verbal charm. Vaughn, also a fan of Hiaasen’s fiction, was in, especially if it meant finally getting to work with Lawrence.
“Here’s the key for TV writers,” Lawrence said. “Write a show where you can hear the lead actor’s voice in your head, not just because you know his range of work and his comedic style, but because you’re lucky enough to have chatted with him over a beer as a kid.”
Bill Lawrence on casting Andrew Yancy: “He’s scathing, provocative and sarcastic, but the show doesn’t work unless you support him.” Enter Vince Vaughn.
(Courtesy of Apple)
For those unfamiliar with Hiaasen’s world, imagine a tropical Elmore Leonard. Drinks and blood flow in equal measure in a Hiaasen novel. The glow of paradise is countered by the stench of crime, usually committed by dastardly conspirators. And the heroes — including Yancy, who also appears in Hiaasen’s 2016 follow-up to “Bad Monkey,” “Razor Girl” — are blessed with the kind of rich, chewy dialogue that becomes red meat for Vaughn in the new series. “Did you ever choke yourself?” Bonnie asks Yancy. “Once, but it wasn’t on purpose,” Yancy replies. “I was wearing a tie and then I tripped.”
Lawrence and his writing team had plenty to work with in Hiaasen’s novel. They also had a talented improviser in Vaughn, quick enough to become a featured player in the later seasons of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” On “Bad Monkey,” it was not uncommon for actors to deliver their lines as written, followed by a question from Vaughn: “Now one for fun?”
Lawrence said many of those “funny” takes found their way into the series and allowed other cast members to shine as well. “There’s a good readiness with which he sets up others,” Lawrence said. “Vince adds material and moments and when people come up to me later and say, ‘Oh, that was really funny,’ I just say, ‘Thank you,’ as if I had something to do with it. It’s a real gift and it’s how I like to make television.”
While “Bad Monkey” plays to the strengths of its creator and star, it also allows them to try out some new tricks. Lawrence made his name with half-hour comedies, and while Vaughn has dabbled in television, he’s mostly associated with “frat boy” comedies on film.
And as much as Lawrence manages to find variations on the positive optimism of “Ted Lasso,” Vaughn has been inundated with scripts seeking to bottle that “Wedding Crashers” magic.
“The business here is built to say, 'Oh, that's what you do. You should do that forever,'” Lawrence said.
This, of course, can get boring.
“You want to go on all the different rides at the amusement park,” Vaughn said. “So you start pushing yourself, and sometimes you like being there, where everything is a little bit new, a little bit scary. It’s fun to try different things, and you have to push yourself to do it.”
Lawrence and Vaughn recalled that such poker games often ended with the night's losers clamoring for one more chance while the winner played it safe, folding hand after hand until it was time to go home.
“The guy who lost $300 wanted to keep going,” Vaughn said. “So we agreed we would play one more time. But then the guy who was ahead would just count his chips. Everybody else would say, ‘Come on, man, give me some action.’”
Today, Vaughn and Lawrence are in full swing and have the best cards in their hands.
