British filmmaker Matthew Vaughn’s helmed a gonzo fantasy with a cross-dressing Robert De Niro, a vigilante superhero flick with a foul-mouthed, killer kid, and a delirious spin on Bond with Colin Firth. But Argylle, his $200 million globe-trotting espionage thriller, has proven to be his most divisive film yet.
The film follows Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a novelist/homebody whose series of spy books about Aubrey Argylle (Henry Cavill) have captured the public’s imagination. One day, she encounters an actual superspy, Aidan (Sam Rockwell), on a train who informs her that a covert government agency called The Division, led by Ritter (Bryan Cranston), is on her trail since those yarns she’s been cooking up have hit a little too close to home. And with that, Elly and Aidan (and her beloved cat, Alfie) are off on a wild adventure filled with double (and triple)-crosses and a motley crew of characters played by Samuel L. Jackson, Catherine O’Hara, Ariana DeBose, Richard E. Grant, John Cena, and Dua Lipa.
To say the reviews have been mixed would be an understatement, but Vaughn, who made a splash with his directorial debut Layer Cake before helming Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and the Kingsman films, knows his taste isn’t for everybody.
“Marmite had this brilliant campaign that was like, ‘Marmite: You’re either going to love it or you’re going to hate it. Simple as that.’ And I think I’m becoming a Marmite filmmaker,” he says.
In addition to technically featuring Dua Lipa’s first film role (it was shot before Barbie), Argylle found itself at the center of a bizarre online conspiracy involving another pop superstar: Taylor Swift. Her Swiftie fans were convinced that the real Elly Conway, a mystery author who supposedly penned the book upon which the film is based, was none other than Swift since the singer-songwriter has a fascination with argyle sweaters, her short film featured a similarly redheaded author, and Howard’s Conway has a Scottish fold cat that she hauls around in a cat backpack nearly identical to the one Swift hauled around her own Scottish fold, Olivia Benson, in the documentary Miss Americana.
Vaughn, who says he’s currently working on a musical with Damien Chazelle, chatted with Rolling Stone about all things Argylle — including the Taylor Swift of it all.
I saw Layer Cake at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and — I shit you not — turned to my classmate at the time, since I was in college, and said, “That guy should play James Bond.” Because they were still searching for the new Bond at the time.
I was there! Daniel [Craig] and I were really pumped after the screening and then Kung Fu Hustle was after us, and I remember looking at Daniel and going, “Oh, we’re fucked.” That blew my mind seeing Kung Fu Hustle. But it was fun. That was probably the last time Daniel could walk around and not get mobbed. How things change in life!
How instrumental were you in Daniel Craig getting cast as Bond? I read that you were in talks to direct Casino Royale at one point.
Yeah, it’s bizarre. I had some meetings. I think the most instrumental person in becoming Bond was Daniel by who he is and what he is, but I know that the director, Martin Campbell, saw Layer Cake and that convinced him. But he’s had a hell of a hurrah, let’s put it that way.
They also took Ben Whishaw from Layer Cake.
I know! I was waiting for Sienna Miller to be the Bond girl and then I’ve done my part!
Let’s talk about the genesis of Argylle. How did you stumble upon Jason Fuchs’ screenplay and what attracted you to it?
During lockdown, we watched lots of movies with the kids. I got them to watch Charade, North by Northwest, Romancing the Stone, and my girls were like, “Dad, why don’t you make a movie like this?” Because of lockdown we were all united by misery, and I felt the world was going to get tougher and darker after, which it has, so I thought it was time to try and find a project that was not necessarily in my comfort zone — a female-oriented movie that was PG-13. The script was very different to the end movie but it had enough in my mind to latch on to. It was far more along the lines of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Romancing the Stone, and I said, “Look: I want to dial this up in certain ways, change the characters, and bring in the cat.” He was quite freaked out by it but eventually was happy.
You worked with Henry Cavill in Stardust years ago, but had you seen him in your pal Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and think he’d make a good Bond-esque spy?
It was between Daniel and Henry to play Bond last time around, and they both did screen tests. It was quite odd because I spoke with them both at the time about how the screen tests went. I know that with Henry they thought he was too young, and he was very young back then, and he was great in Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was like, “How I start this movie with a spy who you feel has been a spy and an icon for a long time?” And I thought, “Henry Cavill in a Nehru jacket with a flattop opposite Dua Lipa will set the tone very, very quickly for that world.” The hair was modelled after Ivan Drago from Rocky IV with a little bit of Schwarzenegger.
How did you land on Dua Lipa for the villainous spy Lagrange?
I needed a glamorous, Bond girl-esque, beautiful femme fatale who was as big a star as Henry Cavill, so it just read instantly. I’d seen Dua on [The Graham Norton Show] in London, and I didn’t know who she was. But my kids had been banging on about her and I got to listen to her music and liked it. But more importantly, in this chat show she was wearing a Valentino dress that not many women could pull off. She looked like a living, walking mirrorball. She looked astonishing. And in her interview, she was so charming and charismatic. I was like, “I wonder if she wants to act?” I reached out, we got along really well, and we were off to the races. She was very nervous about acting in her first movie and Cavill was very nervous about dancing in his first film, so they played off each other’s anxieties.
What was Dua like as an actress?
Barbie was shot after us so this was her first time on a film set. She was great. Listen: She’s talented, took direction, and more importantly, sometimes when you’re that famous and successful you behave in a certain manner. She walked on the set as if she’d never been on a set before and didn’t behave in any other way than that she was lucky to be there. She was inquisitive, kind, hard-working, on time, and stayed late. She gets 10/10 from me.
The Scottish fold in the film is played by your actual cat, Chip?
Damn right. The nepo cat. That was not by design; it was by default. The first day of filming we had with an actor-cat really wasn’t working out, so I went to my daughter’s bedroom and said, “I’m going to have to borrow the cat.” And she went, “Fine.” I don’t think she realized it meant for three months.” And it was odd: He drove with me to work every morning and shared my trailer. I was cat-handling. But he seemed to enjoy it. He was a natural.
There is a real book, and it’s a really good book, and there is an Elly Conway who wrote the book, but it’s not Taylor Swift. I imagine Taylor Swift has a bunch of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right, and center, so I don’t want to be a part of that club.
I do have to ask you about these “Taylor Swift is Elly Conway” internet rumors. Did it even catch you by surprise how her fandom took this thing and ran with it?
Yeah. I’m not a big internet guy and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — and this is the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, “You never told me Taylor wrote the book!” And I’m looking at her going, “What are you talking about Taylor Swift wrote the book?” And I was laughing because I was like, “It’s not true! She didn’t write the book!” But my daughter was convinced of it. There is a real book, and it’s a really good book, and there is an Elly Conway who wrote the book, but it’s not Taylor Swift. I imagine Taylor Swift has a bunch of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right, and center, so I don’t want to be a part of that club. I read the conspiracy theories and was like, “Wow! They don’t leave a single stone unturned.” But it’s not Taylor Swift.
I read the conspiracy theory too and it was odd because they basically thought she wrote the book because she has a thing for argyle sweaters and owns a Scottish fold.
And ironically, what she is responsible for is the Scottish fold. I got home one day, and it’s Christmas, and I’m like, “What the fuck is that noise?” And my kids are like, “I don’t know!” But they did. They saw the Taylor Swift documentary [Miss Americana] and had persuaded my wife Claudia [Schiffer] to get them the kitten for Christmas. It was bought without my permission and hidden from me, and then I was like, “Well, we’ve got a cat.”
So Taylor Swift is technically responsible for Chip being in Argylle.
As crazy as that sounds, that is our only Taylor Swift connection.
Elly Conway is a pen name for Matthew Vaughn and Jason Fuchs, right?
No, the two of us don’t have enough time to write a book. And it’s a really good book. I don’t know if you saw the end credits, but Louis Partridge is going to play the young Argylle in the next film. Cavill and that lot will be in the movie as well. And I think the world is ready for a 19, 20-year-old spy instead of 60-year-old spies, to be blunt. Kids need younger actors who are of their generation. That’s why Saltburn’s done so well, I think. Indiana Jones is a bloody 80-year-old and it’s hard for kids to relate to that. Imagine the first Top Gun starring Cary Grant? We would’ve gone, “What’s fucking wrong with you?”
I understand that you were developing Thor years ago but then left the project. Why did you end up leaving? And what’s kept you from the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Thor was a tricky one. It was a really good script written by Mark Protosevich, and we were working on it together. It was a take on the Vikings and was set in the world where the Vikings were ruling, they believed in Thor, and Thor being banished to the Viking world, and having the shit kicked out of him for saying he’s a god. And Loki got him vanished. So, you had the best of both worlds: Valhalla and this gritty, documentary-style Viking movie. I was really excited, but when I was working with Marvel at that time, they were fledgling, had put all their chips on Iron Man, and I wanted to get on with it, but they weren’t ready to push the button. And you’ll have to ask Kevin Feige why I haven’t done a Marvel movie since. Everyone says there’s “superhero fatigue,” and I think there’s “bad superhero movies fatigue,” so maybe Deadpool and Wolverine will respark people wanting to see them. We have to make better superhero films. I don’t know what happened. I think the formula became more important than the movie. But I’d love to do one someday.
With X-Men: First Class, you did a fine job of casting a new group of X-Men and establishing that world. How do you feel about the way that X-Men series turned out?
I learned a lot. I’m grateful for the whole First Class experience because it’s the first time I’ve worked with a studio that was supportive and could throw money at problems. When it came to Days of Future Past and were plotting it out with Simon Kinberg, I went, “Oh no, this should be number three. This is going to be the biggest event and then it’ll be downhill.” And I wanted the second film to recast and meet young Wolverine. And then I found out that I wasn’t allowed to direct Days of Future Past — they only revealed to me when I handed the script in that they had to see whether Bryan [Singer] wanted to do it or not. And that pissed me off, to be blunt, because I was like, “Well, you could have told me that at the beginning of the process!” And then I spoke to Bryan and realized that this was Bryan’s franchise, not mine, and I had to create my own franchise. So, I did Kingsman instead.
