Last week I had the chance to exclusively talk with Dave Franco about Ken Scott’s (Delivery Man) new comedy “Unfinished Business.”

The film follows a hard-working small business owner (Vince Vaughn) and his two associates (Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco) who travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives. But what began as a routine business trip goes off the rails in every imaginable – and unimaginable – way, including unplanned stops at a massive sex fetish event and a global economic summit.

Here is what he said about the upcoming film and two upcoming sequels “Now You See Me 2” and “Neighbors 2.”

What is it with you and comedy films? Is that your favorite genre?

Dave Franco: I guess I’ve done primarily comedies up until this point. I have a good time doing them just because, on most of the comedies I’ve worked on, they’ve been heavily improvised. And so essentially I’m just coming to set with a bunch of really funny people and we’re just trying to make each other laugh every day. So it ends up being a lot of fun.

For those who haven’t seen ‘Unfinished Business’, can you elaborate on your character and who you play?

Dave Franco: Yeah. So the movie is about a small business comprised of three guys. And they take a trip to Berlin to close a huge deal they’ve been working on through the year. And one they get there they realize that their biggest competitor is also fighting for the same deal. And so everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. And they find themselves amongst some crazy situations throughout Berlin. Some of which are a giant sexual fetish event. And the Berlin marathon. And what else? What else? What else do they experience? Oh, and Oktoberfest.

A lot of drinking.

Franco: Yeah.

Speaking of overseas, how much was this actually filmed in Berlin?

Franco: We filmed two months in Berlin and a month in Boston.

How was working with Vince Vaughn and Tom Wilkinson?

Franco: It was incredible. I’ve admired both of them for a long time. So it was really rewarding to be able to work with them and just learn from their process. And with Vince, specifically, I was definitely a little intimidated at first just because I didn’t want to be the person in the scene to slow everything down. I didn’t want to be making bad jokes and looking like an idiot. But what I quickly realized is that when you’re working with someone as funny as Vince he elevates everyone else in that scene. And he makes everyone else around him even better than they already are. So that was…that created a very safe environment. And then Tom Wilkinson is just…he is an absolute professional. And, you know, he’s a two-time Academy Award nominee. And I think people are going to be excited to see him in a different role in this movie where he’s taking bong hits and dancing with naked girls. And participating in pillow fights and much, much more.

Speaking about Tom Wilkinson, it seems like a lot of serious drama actors make awesome comedians.

Franco: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Tom…I completely agree with that you’re saying. And what I admire about Tom is that there were certain moments in the script that if performed the wrong way, these moments could very broad and over the top. But Tom, his brand of humor is just attacking a scene in a very real way. He assesses…or I’m sorry. He’s put in a very silly, crazy situation and he just plays it as straight and real as possible and a lot of the humor comes from that.

Were you able to improvise from the script?

Franco: Yeah. The script itself was extremely well written. And so we didn’t feel the need to improvise throughout the entire movie. But there were certain sense that we wanted to have fun with and just allow ourselves to be free and see what kind of moments came that were not scripted. And, again, when you’re working with Vince Vaughn he’s at his best when he can be loose and free and, you know, just kind of figure things out on the spot.

Read the full interview

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