Vince Vaughn executive produced and stars as Andrew Yancy in Bad Monkey, which is based on Carl Hiaasen’s bestselling novel. The first two episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+.
“Bad Monkey” tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), who has been bounced from the Miami Police Department and is now a health inspector in the Keys. But after stumbling upon a case that begins with a human arm fished up by tourists, he realizes that if he can prove murder, he’ll be back in. He just needs to get past a trove of Floridian oddballs and one bad monkey.
“He starts off thinking he wants certain things in his life, the job being the first thing, that’s what he wants. But there is something that reminded me of myth, like a Greek myth with a trickster hero who, despite the obvious odds, thinks he can change the universe. That even though these things are stacked against him, there’s something not right here and he can’t let that sit,” the actor explained. “I think we admire that quality in someone that they know that this isn’t right and this person’s not here to speak for themselves, and he wants to bring justice and light to this situation. And so, as he starts to pursue it and as he knows more, it’s harder, at that point, to walk away because now he knows for sure something’s wrong. He’s just trying to figure out how and why, and that runs into what he thought he wanted, which was this job. But really, we realize that that job was kind of a vehicle for what he really cares about, which is justice and righting wrongs.”
We discussed his character’s care for justice, which of his past roles would have been a good partner for this investigation, the challenge of balancing the comedic and dramatic tones of the story, and more.
Watch my interview below:
