Matthew Vaughn has cornered the market on the gritty British indie, as producer of Guy Ritchie's films Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. His directorial debut, Layer Cake, covers more of the same territory, starring Daniel Craig as a drug smuggler carrying out his last two assignments before retiring. Asked if he's drawn to the seamy underworld of gangsters, Vaughn replies, "Obviously. I don't know why, but I have a feeling I've gotten it out of my system now." Up next for the new director is the long-awaited X-Men 3, in which he'll trade in lowlife hooligans for crime-fighting mutants.
The early career: Vaughn began in the industry as a "tea boy" for a producer. "It's like an intern," he explains. "I made the tea and did the photocopying. You've got to pay your dues." It certainly wasn't glamorous; he can recall "loads" of horror stories working with bad bosses. "I remember being told that if I was ever more than 30 seconds late for work, I'd be fired. Then there was an earthquake and bad traffic, and I was two minutes late, and they did try to fire me," he says. "I remember doing an 18-hour day and then being told to drive two hours to drop something off. They treat you like a slave, but it toughens you up and gets you ready." Rather than be discouraged by these experiences, he chose to be philosophical. "It just made me think, 'If assholes like this can make it, I can.'"
Vaughn says he was initially drawn to producing rather than acting or directing, because, "I thought, with producing, you could get away with having no talent." He produced his first film at age 23, a murder mystery called The Innocent Sleep. "Not many people have seen it, and it's best that way," is all he'll say of the film.
"I didn't know what I was doing, but it was a good learning curve." It also taught him a valuable lesson: "Never make a film unless you are very passionate and believe in it." Three years later, he found that script with Lock, Stock….
The accidental director: Originally, Ritchie was set to direct Layer Cake and Vaughn was to produce. "When Guy decided not to do it, I couldn't be bothered to hire another director. So I thought I'd have a go at it," he says matter-of-factly. "Everyone thought I was mad, but it turned out okay." He admits that some actors were hesitant to sign on, but he understands. "A producer wanting to be a director was not a recipe for success," he says.
Asked what he feels makes a good director, he says, "Having a clear vision and being able to communicate. My job as a director is to make an actor feel incredibly comfortable and secure." He also makes a point of being very involved with the casting process. "I know whether an actor has got the part within 30 seconds of them entering the room. I can't explain it; they just walk in and you know." And when he knows, he's willing to make changes. He recalls young Ben Whishaw as one discovery he fought for in Layer Cake. "The character was meant to be 35 and big and muscular, and Ben couldn't have been more wrong physically, but he blew me away when he read," recalls Vaughn. The character was rewritten, going from a villain's cousin to his nephew, and the physicality completely altered.
Sophomore efforts: Although a down-and-dirty British crime thriller might not be the perfect calling card for a blockbuster franchise, Vaughn makes landing the X-Men 3 job sound like a logical second step. "[The producers] saw Layer Cake, and I expressed interest in doing it, and the two sort of complemented each other," he says simply. Taking the job meant turning down directing the next Bond film, which he had also been approached about. Thus far, he says making a Hollywood sequel is a process "pretty similar" to British independents, and he has no qualms about working with a bigger budget or bigger stars. Following X-Men 3, Vaughn has a couple of projects in mind: a spy film by the author of Trainspotting, and an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel Stardust. And, to future producers, he offers the following, "Start in the mailroom or as an assistant or as an intern, and work your way up, and learn about the business. A lot of producers have no clue what they're doing. It's the most underrated job in the business."