Austin Film Festival Conversations: Simon Rex, Michael Kvamme, and Matthew Vaughn from ‘Operation Taco Gary’s’

Simon Rex and Dustin Milligan as Danny and Luke in Michael Kvamme’s OPERATION TACO GARY’S. (Photo Courtesy of the Austin Film Festival.)

Operation Taco Gary’s was one of the finest comedies to grace the 2024 Austin Film Festival. Courtesy of its ability to harken back to the era in film where zany comedies ruled the day, and to further celebrate this amazing film we sat down with Writer/Director Michael Kvamme, Star Simon Rex, and Producer Matthew Vaughn to further break down this refreshing film.
 
John Betancourt: So, a bit of a multi-part question to start. For Michael, what inspired you to write this and for Simon and Matthew, what inspired you to be part of this?
 
Michael Kvamme: I wrote it during lockdown, like I've been telling people, you know, I had that completely unique idea to write a screenplay during lockdown, and I can't believe no one else thought about it. I was literally the only one. (Laughter) So, I had this brother relationship that I always wanted to do based on a text message that my little brother sent me a long time ago, before he joined the military, he was like, “Let's go on a road trip to Mexico.” And I think I said this in the Q and A, but I was convinced he was trying to leave the country, like steal my passport, maybe because that's… I was projecting. That's what I would do for him. And I just love conspiracy theories, so I just had fun during the pandemic, trying to, trying to write conspiracy theories and put them into a grounded quadrant.
 
Matthew Vaughn: Well, first, it's all in the writing. When Michael sent me a very early draft of the script, I was immediately hooked, and I knew this was something that we had to go and make it wasn't just one, you know, he's been very successful in selling scripts and things, but this was one for us to go out and actually make.
 
Simon Rex:  Well, Matt and I go way back, and I knew him before he really kind of started working in Hollywood, producing a lot of, you know, big comedy specials. He's the Emmy winning producer, and he started to do film, starting with this one, and he said, “Hey, I got a really funny script. You want to read it?” And my first reaction, which I'm learning is not always right, is when a friend comes at you with a script… it's usually not the best, unfortunately, not just friends. Most scripts are bad, but it gets funny when it's a friend, because you have to say no to a friend, and it gets weird. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the script. To say the least. I laughed out loud the whole time. My agents and managers agreed. They're like, “Ihis is the funniest thing we've read in awhile, and we see a lot of scripts come in,” and I knew I just wanted to do it based off the script. And Mike and I had a meeting, and I just went with my gut, and I said, “Let's do it.” And we executed what I saw on the page. And I'm just so happy that we made a fun throwback movie to a bygone era when movies like this were made for the under 90 minutes that are insane and silly. And you know, we need these more than ever right now and they’re not being made. So, I slapped myself on as a producer, because I wanted to be involved more in the creative process, help cast it. You know, have ideas. They were open to letting me chime in, and it was awesome.
 
John Betancourt: That leads me to my next question for Michael, because I’m curious what inspired you to bring this type of comedy back to life.
 
Michael Kvamme: If you're not being commissioned or paid to write a project, you're writing for yourself, right? I mean, as everyone probably at this conference knows, you're just writing to entertain yourself, something that you want to see. And clearly, I wanted to throw back to that those comedies with a capital C, and just be as goofy and stupid and weird as possible with a nice, cohesive story, and try to have a unique take and the unique look. But again, at the end of the day you start these kind of projects for yourself.
 
John Betancourt: Now from a production standpoint, for Matthew and Simon, were there any restrictions that you ran into, in getting Matthew what he needed to make this feature?
 
Matthew Vaughn: I mean, early drafts of this would blow your mind, but what I will say, I think that's one of the harder jobs of a hands-on producer is, is having to find creative ways around certain limitations when it comes to budget. Because, of course, that's -- I don't care if you have $3 million or you have $25 million, you're still gonna be having those same like, “We need more, we want this. We want that or more days.” So, I think we're always going to have those conversations from smaller films like this all the way up to the to the big ones. But on this one, what was great is that a lot of the choices Michael made -- it massaged Michael's muscle to make fun comedic creative choices to offset certain things that maybe weren't possible at this budget level. That’s how the script evolved. And then we started backing into a, you know, a version of that.
 
I think that's why I love doing what I'm doing, because it’s always seemed like production is the bad guy, and it’s always production and creatives going head to head, and production’s always saying “No, no, no, we can't afford this, blah, blah,” yeah, so to come in and try and bridge that gap and be a creative, you know, that can help steer… that is, is what makes it so much fun. But it's tough. I mean, I mean, Simon was a part of those conversations too, with certain things of like, what we could do, what we couldn't do. What was great is we had Simon and Dustin Milligan who were willing to, like… we got to go out and rehearse months beforehand and do things like that. That really helped so that we could shoot this film in a truncated timeline, because the amount of dialogue this guy had, yeah, was insane. I mean, that's why I'm curious. You haven't really talked much about when you first read it. We're like, “Oof, that's a lot of lines.”
 
Simon Rex: Yeah, no, it was intimidating, for sure, the amount of dialogue, knowing that it had to be said so fast. I mean, we kept leaning into while on set, you know, speed is our friend. You know, I think when you're in comedy, if you plow through, if it's good writing, it makes it funnier. You almost don't give an audience a chance to really, like, digest what was said. So, I knew that it had to be machine gun fire delivery. So, I really had to memorize some of those diatribes, that was, for me, that was really the challenging part. And I just did an impression of a friend of mine who's a conspiracy theorist, who's basically, you know, calls me and is going 100 miles an hour, and, you know, sharing these conspiracy theories. And it's very entertaining. And I just did an impression of him.
 
John Betancourt: So, to follow up on that a bit. This kind of movie is obviously in your wheelhouse, and you are a comedy legend. But what did this do for you as an actor freedom wise? Since you had more input here and a chance to really build up the character.
 
Simon Rex: Well, there was some improv, but honestly, for the most part, the script was so well written, and it flowed so naturally that I really just stuck to the script. I'd say 90% I mean, there wasn't too much improv as far as dialogue goes. It didn't really need it. And so, if anything, it was more on the producer side that was the new experience for me, and that gave me confidence. Normally, as an actor, you stand here, say this, wear this, say it like this, and maybe you'll have a director that’s cool to let you chime in with ideas. But, that's fine, that that's the case normally, but in this case, you know, it was nice to have my ideas explored, or if I had, you know… he was very open minded to best idea wins, which I think is often a good way to shoot a movie, especially a comedy. And so, for me, it was just kind of, this is my default setting, like, I'm more comfortable doing comedy than drama, like I don't take myself that serious, so I like to have fun and be the clown and the court jester. So that comes natural to me. So, if I was to have to be very dramatic and serious, that's actually the challenge. So, this is, to me, kind of like my thing. So, that's also why I was attracted to it, not out of laziness, but out of, like, I love doing comedy so much, and it's so dry out there for these types of types of movies.
 
John Betancourt: Now, I do want to expand on something a little further, since you talked about that impression of your conspiracy theorist friend. I’d love to know more about how you built that up and made it so realistic.
 
Simon Rex: I remember Sean Penn -- so this is the best, one of the best acting tips, not directly from him, but something I learned is to do an impression of somebody, you know, because it that's an easy thing to pull from. And like Sean Penn said, when he did Spicoli, he was just doing an impression of this dude in Venice that he surfed with. That was always like, “No way.”  He's like, “That was a real guy.” And he's like, “I just did an impression of him.” So, I always remembered that. And in several projects, I've done, I have so many colorful friends in my life. I'll just do impressions of my friends that I know their rhythm and their timing and how they talk. So I kind of just did a hybrid of me and this buddy of mine who is one of the funniest people I know, and is 100 miles an hour and is very passionate about his conspiracy theories, very convincing and coming from a good place, like that was something I wanted to, you know, put into this is that, you know, I don't want to give anything away, but Danny's actually doing what's right. And I think that it all comes down to intention. And if somebody's trying to do the right thing, you root for them more. So as much as Danny seems like he's like, like some… not the villain, but you know, he's doing some fucked up shit to his brother, but it is all for a reason, and he's a hero, yeah, so I wanted to make them likable, funny.
 
John Betancourt: Now for Michael, this is a movie that takes some big swings with the story. Now, we won’t spoil anything here, but I am curious what motivated you to put together a bold story.
 
Michael Kvamme: Well one of the, one of the goals I had... I knew what the last page of the script was, right? So, how do I get there? You have to take risks basically every 15 pages. And that's I was trying to do, like, alright, so every 10 to 15 pages, we gotta have big progression. And it's basically every 10 to 15 pages, Danny will say, “I haven't been completely honest with you.” To move it along. But also, you know, again, I wrote it first for me. I like to be entertained. I like to constantly -- I don't like to know where the story is going.
 
John Betancourt: With this being a labor of love, what did it mean to each of you to have this screened in front of a live audience?
 
Michael Kvamme: Yeah, especially when you write it, say, four years ago, all these jokes are so old, and you're still hoping, like, “I hope they still work. I hope they're still funny. I hope people laugh,” and when they did, it was just such a relief. I've just been relieved this whole time.
 
Matthew Vaughn: You also have to remember, we've seen the film so many times, in so many different iterations. Some of those hits lose their effect, after a while, that's the way it is, those surprises. I think what was so great about last night is that we got to experience that through a large group of people, and they hit right where they were supposed to hit. And that's what made it like… that was the relief of like, “Oh my gosh,” and the joy because then you're laughing again too, because you're like, “Yeah, that is fucking funny.” Oh, they picked up on that, you know, Easter egg. I mean, this is a movie that you go, and you can just turn off from the world for a little bit and laugh from the beginning to the end. And that's what I think we accomplished with this and with an amazing cast.
 
Simon Rex: I mean, the cast is amazing. Everybody crushed it. I can't even imagine anyone else doing these roles. We're so lucky to get everyone we had in it. And I remember David Zucker when I did Scary Movie. He said, “I'm making a movie so people could put their brain under their seat for 90 minutes and like, escape from their lives and have a good time.” And I feel like while this does that. It still does have a story that you're invested in, and it has stakes, and it's not mindless, but it's silly and fun, and having fun making -- it's like a “Wink, wink, we're in on the joke.” You know what I mean? Which to me, again, I just think we need these movies more than ever, and that's what makes me so excited about it is, I think making people laugh is the most magical thing you could do. I'm a huge fan of comics. I just showed you the book I'm reading, it’s from a comic. I love comedy so much. It's like I grew up watching what molded my brain as an only child. My best friend was the television. I remember when the VCR came out, I would just record movies off HBO like Mel Brooks movies and David Zucker movies and memorize them and watch them over and over. So, to me, going, being able to do this kind of comedy is just ingrained into me since my childhood, and it's just fun to, you know, to do that.
 
Matthew Vaughn: I'm hearing rumors. It's the conspiracy comedy of the decade. (Laughter from everyone.)
 
John Betancourt: That needs to be on the theatrical release poster. The last question I have you gentlemen today is… what are you each most proud of when it comes to what you’ve accomplished here?
 
Michael Kvamme: The most proud of I mean, there were so many different accomplishments throughout. Just getting to the first day of shooting, and then getting to the second day of shooting. (Laughter) You know, getting to the edit, we ran out of money so many different times. It was just, there's a million different accomplishments. If I could just pick one thing… just that we made this script, you know, we didn't compromise. We made the movie we wanted to make. And it worked. I don't regret anything.
 
Matthew Vaughn: Honestly, I'm piggybacking off what Michael said, because I think that was, that was the perfect answer and I'm also proud that I got to do this with my friends. It's not always that you get to work with your friends, you're always going to make new friends and stuff, but I've known Simon for 15 plus years, Michael, 15 plus years, Bill Dawes, who's also a piece of talent. And so getting to do this with people that you've known that long, and, and to do something fun like this, that's the hope is that we continue doing these types of movies, because I really do think there's a hole right now for those throwbacks, as Simon said, the late 90s, early 2000s comedies, when they were low budget, so yeah, we'll see.
 
Simon Rex: Yeah. I'm most proud… my ego is the proud to see my name with executive producer. (Laughter) So I'm gonna say surreal to see my name there as a producer, I never would have thought in a million years I would see that. And piggybacking off what Matt said, I actually have had a lot of bad experiences working with friends. You know, it could often jeopardize friendships. So, I have an aversion at times, to working with friends, which was, at first, I didn't want to affect my friendship with him, so I was a little on the fence, because in the past, that has backfired on me, not always. So, I'm proud of the fact that I got to work with my friends. It came out great, and it didn't sabotage friendships, and I built new ones. So that was a good learning experience for me, that I'm wrong a lot, and I shouldn't have that aversion. Maybe I should, sometimes. It worked out.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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