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• Article on Mr. Favreau
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• The Break-Up
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Tavis: Jon Favreau is a talented actor, writer, director, and producer. This year, believe it or not, marks the tenth anniversary, hard to believe, of his classic movie "Swingers.' He's also the host and executive producer of IFC's 'Dinner For Five.' His latest project is the film "The Break-Up," where he teams up once again with his good friend Vince Vaughn.

The movie opened at number one last weekend. Here now, a scene from 'The Break-Up.'

Tavis: (Laughs) Jon, nice to have you here.

Jon Favreau: Oh, thanks for having me.

Tavis: So, I'm watching you watch this clip. Some people come on, and they can't stand to watch the monitor. I saw you staring at it aggressively. What'd you see?

Favreau: I lost a little weight since then, so I'm very happy. (Laughs) Is that too vain?

Tavis: No, not at all.

Favreau: That's it. That's really all.

Tavis: I saw you looking so tight, I was, like, there's, I thought maybe you grew your hair back or something.

Favreau: Yeah, I grew some hair back, too. I did a lot of work for the role. I'm shooting for an Oscar with the weight change. (Laughs) Apparently me and Vince are a little heavier than we were in "Swingers,' and a lot of the reviews like to point that out.

Tavis: Point that out, yeah.

Favreau: DeNiro, they give an Oscar for. For me, they say "Swingers to Fat Camp.' One of the reviews said, 'Swingers to Fat Camp.' It made me very proud.

Tavis: To your point, does it feel like 10 years since "Swingers?

Favreau: It didn't until I saw, we went to Aspen for the Aspen Comedy Festival, which I'd never been to before. A wonderful, wonderful event, 'cause it's an intimate environment. All comedians, great shows going on there. And they had a 10 year anniversary of "Swingers,' and we did a Q and A. Myself, Vince Vaughn, and Doug Liman, the director. And you gotta remember, at the time we made "Swingers,' we made it for no money. It didn't get into any of the big festivals.

Tavis: What was no money back then?

Favreau: Like 200, $250,000?

Tavis: Wow, that is no money.

Favreau: It still is, yeah. And you can make movies cheaper now with digital and home editing equipment. But we were doing it basically on film, the way you would make a big movie. So, we were a very scrappy production. And then we got acquired for, like, five million bucks from Miramax. It was a huge story. But then we didn't do a lot of business in the theaters.

And so there was never that big wave of fame or appreciation that comes with a movie that sort of gets discovered like 'Good Will Hunting' came out that year, 'Sling Blade.' We sort of went away. And there were no sell-out crowds to that show. And it sort of petered out. To see the movie now, 10 years later, everybody's seen it, thanks to DVD and video. And so, it's almost like it has a stronger following now than it did when it first came out. So it's very fun.

Tavis: What's the lesson or lessons in that for you as a writer and producer, director, that you had a project that you put that, comparatively speaking, little resource into, a quarter million dollars, Miramax buys it, and yet it doesn't reach the expectation that people had for it?

Favreau: It teaches you that you - look, when I got cast in a lead role in 'Rudy,' which is where I met Vince, I thought there was no looking back. And then I get out to Hollywood, after being cast out of Chicago, realizing that there's scores and scores of other people who are like working actors who work enough not to have to work, but they're not stars and don't have parts coming to them.

So the thing is that once you climb one mountain, you find inevitably that there's another mountain that's even bigger. And if you let that frustrate you, it could be debilitating. But you have to just get in touch with the fact that you're always going to be struggling and always gonna be striving for something else, and you have to really pick a field that you enjoy enough that you enjoy that struggle.

Tavis: Mm hmm. What's the thing that you and Vince, you guys like working together, obviously.

Favreau: We have a weird chemistry. We're very different people, but we both find the same things very funny. And we had made each other laugh a lot on the set of 'Rudy,' where we both didn't have huge parts. And he got really, cut pretty bad out of it, too. Which I was able to rub in his face, pretty much.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs)

Favreau: Until about the time he got cast in 'Lost World.' Then he started rubbing it in my face a little bit more.

Tavis: Right.

Favreau: And then 'Elf' came out that I directed, and that made, like, $170 million, and I could rub that in his face. And then soon after, 'Wedding Crashers' came out, and he made, like, over $200 million. (Laughs) So now I'm...

Tavis: There's a pattern here.

Favreau: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: Yeah.

Favreau: I don't know if I will ever get to rub anything in his face anymore, 'cause he's really on fire now. And now with this film "The Break-Up" being as successful as it is, and where "Swingers' was sort of my break-up story that I came up with and gave him a role, this is the first time that he sort of came up with a thing on his own.

Hired writers, developed it with them. Hired a director. Made it and stuck to his guns. People like it, don't like it. The fact is, the film is successful, very well received. And now, he sort of has launched another as aspect of his career, which I'm very proud of for him.

Tavis: So for those who have not seen it, and there are apparently very few, 38.1 million, I think I read third highest grossing romantic comedy opening weekend. Not just opening, opening weekend. The third highest in history. For those who have not seen the story, how would you describe the story of this break-up?

Favreau: Well, it begins in an interesting way. His idea, he's always been a fan of, like, the 'Odd Couple,' that film. The film starts with, where most would end, or not even. Usually, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, right? Here, boy and girl have been together a long time, and then boy and girl can't stand each other.

And they don't want to leave, because neither wants to let the other one keep this condominium that they have. And so, there's very much of an 'Odd Couple' type relationship. Almost like a 'War Of The Roses' type deal, until it degrades and debilitates down to a full-on feud. And then the ending of the film, which took a lot of care to get right, they actually worked on it not that long ago, just trying to get the tone properly, sort of resolves it in a way that doesn't fit the Hollywood mold.

But also doesn't sell out the material that was there. And in that sense, it has sort of maybe a sensibility that's not quite so 2006 Hollywood sensibility. A little bit more of an ambiguous, maybe like a seventies film or something.

Tavis: I don't know if the word is courageous, risky, or stupid, you tell me, to do a project that doesn't fit, to your point, in that Hollywood mold, in a contemporary sense, of the way stories are told?

Favreau: Well, that's more his vibe. That's more Vince's vibe. I sort of got that out of my system a little bit, oddly. (Laughs) I like to make movies that, me personally, that are very hopeful. I like to make movies that are a little unexpected. But I think that part of what I think our responsibility is as storytellers is to, even though you're not telling a true story, the theme should be true.

I think you should get something from it that helps you live your life and look at the world in a way that's positive. I think movies have a lot of power over people. Not that they can manipulate them to do things, but it certainly will change the mood you're in. It certainly will show you things in a different light. And I think documentaries are great.

I know certain documentaries have changed my life, have changed my stance politically on things. And even a fictional story is a good way to give people a context of the way the world works in more of a spiritual sense. So, I personally enjoy stories like "Swingers or 'Elf.' Ones that, especially since 9/11, where the world is very confusing.

To give people a sense that there is hope and that life, there are good aspects of life, too. Life isn't just a confusing random set of events. And when you get more indy and nihilistic in your movie making, I think, you tend to dwell on that. And I think pre-9/11, maybe it was good to show people that the world was a more complex place.

Now I think it's about bringing people together. Not just Americans, but bringing people around the world together. Having them relate and laugh and enjoy things together, to realize that there is a common ground. And I think that hopefully, this next decade's going to be one of rebuilding relationships between individuals and between nations.

And I hope - it sounds like a very self-important answer for the question you asked, but my job is making movies so I could affect the world in a small way. And I think that if you can make people laugh and bring people together and make people more likely to feel communal with one another, it's nicer than trying to divide people.

Tavis: I have a friend, a guy named Tom Joyner, who says all the time if you can get people to laugh, you can make them listen.

Favreau: Yeah.

Tavis: Radio or TV, it doesn't matter. If you can make them laugh, you can make them listen.

Favreau: You could slip a theme in there.

Tavis: Exactly.

Favreau: But if it's just a theme, it's just relentless. It's a relentless, it was like Public Enemy. If it was just Chuck D telling you what's going on, you always needed Flavor Flav to lighten it up and make (unintelligible).

Tavis: Oh, I know you did not go there. (Laughs)

Favreau: I did.

Tavis: I know Jon Favreau did not come on, (laughs) did not come on PBS...

Favreau: I came on Tavis Smiley.

Tavis: Oh, come on, man. You can't - that's why I love you.

Favreau: It's not Charlie Rose. (Laughs) It's a different situation here.

Tavis: Who knew? He comes on PBS and drops Chuck D and Flavor Flav. I love the reference.

Favreau: But I did that when I was on Fox News, too.

Tavis: Yeah, well. (Laughs) And I'm sure O'Reilly got the joke.

Favreau: Yeah.

Tavis: I'm sure Bill got the joke. Speaking of jokes, and speaking of hope, I hope that you actually get to make 'Iron Man,' the Marvel Comic story. I say I hope you get to make it because I hear, a little birdie told me that the people at Marvel ain't too happy with you right about now.

Favreau: (Laughs) No, the people at Marvel...

Tavis: Did I hear this correctly?

Favreau: No, that's not, well, here's the situation.

Tavis: Yeah.

Favreau: We came in, I'm working at Marvel, getting ready (laughs) to do 'Iron Man.'

Tavis: I know this.

Favreau: And their movie that's out is 'X-Men,' which was very well reviewed.

Tavis: Which was doing just fine.

Favreau: It's still doing just fine.

Tavis: Until.

Favreau: It's gonna hit $200 million in the blink of an eye. Nobody's crying for Marvel. But the fact is that a little romantic comedy called 'The Break-Up' opened up, and edged out first place from 'X-Men.' And so the spin of the story is always (laughs) that. And now, so I'm in the office when they're sort of dealing with the fact that they're not number one two weeks in a row.

Tavis: Thanks to you and your friend Vince Vaughn.

Favreau: Thanks to Vince's movie, yeah, that I'm in. So.

Tavis: Don't try to put it on Vince, you were there with him.

Favreau: I have to. Well, you're talking about Marvel, I have to call it Vince's movie. When I'm with Vince, I'm like hey, dude, our movie beat 'X-Men.'

Tavis: (Laughs) So finally, tell me about "Iron Man.'

Favreau: "Iron Man' is a wonderful mythology from the Marvel superhero comic books about a guy who's an arms manufacturer who ends up being injured and captured. And when he's - we're putting it in the context of the Middle East. At the time, in the sixties, when it was written, it was Vietnam. And he gets a heart injury, and in escaping, he builds this suit that helps him escape. And it's a bit of a metaphor for American, sort of the military industrial complex.

It's always been representative as, as Captain America had been one aspect of American society, Iron Man has always represented another aspect of American society. All through the ages, it had been a very political comic book. And the people at Marvel are not shying away from that now. So we're doing a bit of a geopolitical story, as opposed to the smaller, vigilante-based Spiderman or how they did Batman or even Daredevil.

Tavis: Well, I feel the hope.

Favreau: I hope so. (Laughs) Thank you. I hope you hope.

Tavis: (Laughs) I feel the hope. Jon, nice to have you here.

Favreau: Hey, great talking to you. I love the show. And thanks for having me.

Tavis: I love your work, too. He's in the "The Break-Up" now. Soon to come, "Iron Man.' And nice to see you.

Favreau: Okay, thanks.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check for local listings. See you back here -try that again - see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, got me all choked up. (Laughs) Good night from L.A. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.