Argylle Director Matthew Vaughn Fired A Professional Cat And Used His Own Instead
Director Matthew Vaughn, of "Kingsman" and "Kick-Ass" fame, is back with a new spy thriller early next year in the form of "Argylle." Starring Henry Cavill as a fictional spy brought to life by an author played by Bryce Dallas Howard, the movie recently dropped its wacky first trailer. The footage reveals that Howard and her spy sidekick played by Sam Rockwell will be accompanied by an unlikely companion. Namely, a cat. Not exactly something one expects on a globetrotting adventure but in a Matthew Vaughn movie.
Vanity Fair recently spoke with Vaughn about "Argylle" and pulled back the curtain on the filmmaker's latest. It centers on a reclusive spy novel author named Elly Conway (Howard), who loves her cat, Alfie. But when the plots of Elly's fictional books about agent Argylle begin to mirror a real-life spy organization, she races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers, accompanied by Aiden (Sam Rockwell), a cat-allergic spy.
"When Elly goes on the adventure, she brings the cat with her — and cats aren't easy," Vaughn explained. For much of the trailer, the cat is in a travel bag. Sure, sometimes the cat is CGI but there was a real cat on set, too. Turns out, that cat belonged to Vaughn's daughter, who was brought in after a "professional" cat was fired. Here's what the director had to say about that:
"What happened the first day of filming, we had a professional, very expensive acting cat that was useless. So I fired the cat. They don't have any rights, thank God. And I went home and went up to my daughter's bedroom and grabbed her cat and said, 'I'm borrowing this cat for three months.'"
'At the beginning of this film, I loathed cats'
It's not as though Vaughn couldn't afford the cat. Apple shelled out $200 million to scoop up the rights to the project, which will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. All of that money can't necessarily make a cat cooperate. So, Vaughn resorted to requisitioning his daughter's cat, Chip. It made the process interesting for the filmmaker, as he was a bit more of a dog person before making this movie. But Vaughn had to share his trailer with Chip. As he explained in the piece, they were forced to bond.
"It was pretty strange to me. It was a little bit of art imitating life because the cat was driving the characters mad. Can you imagine going on an adventure with a cat? But I was on an adventure driving to work every day and sharing my trailer with a f***ing cat. At the beginning of this film, I loathed cats. I'm a dog person, really. And by the end of it, I bonded with this little thing. We became friends, so I now love Chip."
Jason Fuchs ("Wonder Woman") penned the screenplay for the film. The stacked ensemble cast also includes John Cena ("Fast X"), Ariana DeBose ("West Side Story"), pop star Dua Lipa ("Barbie"), Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad"), Catherine O'Hara ("Schitt's Creek"), Sofia Boutella ("Kingsman: The Secret Service"), and Samuel L. Jackson ("Pulp Fiction").
"Argylle" is set to hit theaters on February 2, 2024.
