The Old School frat chats

The president and pledge master of the fraternity for all ages took time out from their brotherly duties to speak with the Pace Press. Vince Vaughn walks into the room smoking a cigarette and no matter how many movies he does and how good his performances are in each of them, he will always carry his Trent "Double-Down" persona from Swingers. He's smooth, charismatic, and funny as hell as he keeps referring to Luke Wilson as "The L Train."

Pace Press: What were your college years like? Luke Wilson: I went to three different colleges and never really kind of got into the swing of things. I went to a high school I liked a lot with small classes and very good teachers. I had fun playing sports and when I went to college I got a little aimless. Vince Vaughn: I went to a university called Life and our school colors were black and blue [laughs]. I'm kidding, I didn't go to a college; I went to a junior college in Illinois for two weeks, dropped out and moved to Los Angeles.

What was particularly different about making Old School then your prior filmmaking experiences? LW: We did have a lot of fun on the movie and that doesn't always happen. Will Ferrell's a great guy, Todd Phillips, the guy who wrote and directed it and the crew were great, so were all the guys who played the pledges; it was really a nice group to work with. VV: I find that people who are most confident and secure with what they do are also the ones that allow the most ideas to come in from other places. Whenever you have that freedom, whether it's from a crew member or cast member, where everyone feels comfortable to express their ideas and is gonna be listened to, it creates such a better working environment. So this was the first big movie where the script was good but there was a lot of stuff that we would come up with, change and write prior to shooting it. We would make stuff up as we went along and improvise. I had a great time collaborating with Luke, Will, and Todd on this film.

Do you think your fans will feel that Beanie, the character you play in Old School is similar to Trent in Swingers? VV: I think the character's very different from Trent. The one thing that's similar is that they're both fast talking people. Trent is much more innocent, youthful and optimistic. His friend's going through a breakup and his way of handling it is much more encouraging. And in this movie, Beanie's much more of an odds guy, "We're gonna get you the house, we're gonna get you around young girls" it's much more of a saleman's approach.

Is there anything Will Ferrell won't do for a laugh? LW: He won't do his Bush impersonation anymore. People yell it at him and he hates it. That's the only time you'll ever see Will... VV: ...You'll see the hairs go up on the cat [laughs].

What substance was used for the KY Jelly scene? LW: It's what they put in McDonald's milkshakes to give it consistency. It wasn't actually KY, it was some kind of byproduct. I'm still feeling it. I had to take a couple of long showers that day.

I bet you won't have McDonald's milkshakes anymore. LW: No I won't. VV: I will, you see 'cause I don't even know any better. It tastes good, what do I know.

Now that you have some cash to spend, what do you splurge on? VV: I've never been a guy with spending but the one thing I do a lot is play video games. Sadly I'm a pathetic man; I can sit and play video games for hours. You play the game for two weeks and at the end of the game when you get the girl and you saved the world, all you get is a screen. And you're real life goes to hell 'cause you haven't returned any phone calls or spoken to anybody. But in the games I'm the king of the universe, [laughs] and that's the one thing I have the free time to do that I wish I didn't. L Train? LW: I get a lot of CDs that's about it. I'm kind of thrifty; books I don't read and CDs I'm gonna lose or already have.

Every generation has a movie they consider a classic, what yours? LW: Stripes, Animal House. VV: I remember a small little movie called Swingers years back [laughs].