Vince Vaughn first met Bill Lawrence more than 25 years ago, so when cop comedy “Bad Monkey” came around, the actor jumped at the opportunity to finally work together.
“We just laughed a lot,” Vaughn told Variety at the Apple TV+ show’s premiere on Monday night. About collaborating with the “Spin City” and “Ted Lasso” hitmaker, Vaughn added: “He’s got such good ideas. He welcomes ideas. It was easy.”
It’s hardly a surprise things worked out so well, since Lawrence has made a bit of a habit of working with friends and family. At this stage in his career, “it’s just so fun to work with the people you want to spend time with,” he said, as his daughter, singer-songwriter Charlotte Lawrence, walked past him on the sand-colored carpet outside the Hammer Museum in Westwood.
Lawrence was initially apprehensive about casting her in the show, though he knew she had the chops.
“She’s a very confident young lady, but then I started to panic and I was like ‘If I put her in that position…’” he explained. “Social media is tough; it’s tricky. But she’s handled that stuff so often and with an open heart. And I mean she was good. She was awesome. I’d do it again. I’m telling you this — if you get to a point in any job where you can hire your friends or your family, do it immediately.”
Lawrence also reunited with his “Scrubs” star Zach Braff for the new series. “I didn’t even cast him. I just said, ‘Yo, you want to play a doctor again, but this time it’s a little more graphically dark?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, okay,’” the creator recalled. “I got so lonely in Florida, it was nice to have him.”
Bill Lawrence and the cast of “Bad Monkey” (left to right): L. Scott Caldwell, Alex Moffat, Charlotte Lawrence, Natalie Martinez, Vince Vaughn, Meredith Hagner, Michelle Monaghan, Zach Braff, Rob Delaney and Ronald Peet.
Eric Charbonneau for Apple TV+
“Bad Monkey” follows Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), who has been kicked out of Miami Police Department and becomes is a health inspector in the Florida Keys. When tourists fish a human arm out of the water, Yancy realizes that by solving this murder mystery, he might find his way back onto the force.
The Apple TV+ show is based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel of the same name, which piqued Vaughn’s interest thanks to its unconventional tone. “I was really looking for something that had fun personalities, that had cool twists and turns, that had people going through these experiences,” he explained.
Natalie Martinez, who plays Yancy’s former co-worker at the police department, signed onto the project because she had admired Vaughn for many years. “He’s definitely one of our living legends in this genre. He’s so brilliant in what he does. The fact that I’m able to go head to head with him is truly an honor,” Martinez said.
The role also presented an exciting opportunity to showcase her Cuban American heritage and South Florida roots.
“I was actually able to use my accent, use a lot of things that are so true to me, that I normally have to kind of suppress, or hide a little bit, or just change because the roles don’t call for it,” Martinez said. “I was really excited to play someone that was so close to home. I relate so much with the Cuban culture, yet I wasn’t born there. I feel like we need a voice too.”
The first two (of 10) episodes of “Bad Monkey” begin streaming Aug. 14 on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through Oct. 9.