Written Interview: Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month or so, you know that this weekend marks the premiere of Kick-Ass. The movie is directed and co-written by Matthew Vaughn, who also wrote and directed Stardust (2007) and wrote The Debt (2010). He also directed the excellent crime-thriller Layer Cake (2004).
In this FirstShowing.net interview with Alex Billington, Vaughn discusses why he was drawn to Kick-Ass and how his vision for the movie came to be. Some excerpts:
When you initially read the comic and picked it up, did you think that it would make a great movie from the start, even though it had an extreme amount of violence, and a 12-year-old girl killing people, all of those controversial elements?
Matthew Vaughn: Yeah, basically that’s why I wanted to make the movie — everything that made it different and fresh. I was like, “God, it’s about time there’s a superhero film like Kick-Ass,” literally, and I knew I could make a film that I’d want to go see, and I wanted to make a comic book movie that was more relevant to the world we live in.
We’ve heard the stories about Hollywood studios immediately rejecting the idea when you first brought this to them. So is it great to be at a point where there’s so much buzz now and your film is, I think, about to open big this weekend? It seems like you’ve come a long way.
Vaughn: You’re right. I mean, you know what it is? Is it a good feeling? Yes. Is it very tempting to go, “Ha-, told you so,” and be a dick about it? Yes. But I’m trying not to, and I’m relieved, because I didn’t realize — I mean, I knew I was taking a risk, but I remember Mark Millar pointed it out to me, saying, “You realize the people who have said no to this film are the people you’re going to have to try to sell it to again when it’s finished? What makes you think they’re going to say yes?” And I was suddenly like, “God, you’re right.” But I already started shooting it when he told me that. I had such belief in the film, and I felt passionate about it, and I just thought: That’s what wrong with the film industry, there’s not enough people doing what they think is right and loving what they do. I mean, I love making movies, and I’m the luckiest man alive to have a job which feels like a dream come true.
Do you think that the freedom you have to make a movie this way, with your own financing, is a truly gratifying experience for you as the director, or is it potentially problematic when you lose control?
Vaughn: Lose control if the studio financed it, you mean?
No, I mean from your standpoint, in terms of just going overboard. I mean, do you think that working on your own independent financing is the absolute best way to make a movie these days?
Vaughn: I think if you’re a director who’s got a proper vision, that you’re not some moron that will just run off amok… I think in the ’70s — it’s one of my favorite periods of filmmaking, the ’70s. Not to sound arrogant, but filmmaking is a director’s medium, number one, and I think that the director is being minimalized more and more and more as the industry is growing and growing and growing. And I think if you’re a good director, you should have a good producer keeping you in line, but a director should have the freedom to make the movie. Especially if you’re a writer-director. If you’ve written a script, then you’ve written the outline to what the film is and what it’s going to be, and therefore there shouldn’t be any issues.
For more of the interview, go here.
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