BURBANK, CALIFORNIA –He is, arguably, the hottest comic actor in Hollywood. However, unlike most of his contemporaries, Vince Vaughn didn't come from standup comedy or television shows. Instead, he played killers in Clay Pigeons and Psycho before most people even noticed he was particularly funny.

His acting skills are strong enough that his Fred Claus costar, Kevin Spacey, invited him to work with London's Old Vic Theatre Company, of which Spacey is artistic director. Spacey says that Vaughn's approach to the material allows him to do almost anything.

"Vince uses improv to discover what is going on in a scene," he says on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. "What is great is that he is not trying to always be funny or slick. You think, 'What would it be like if I stopped doing the lines in the script and tried to find where this character is emotionally?' It was fun making Fred Claus because of that approach."

In the film, Vaughn plays Fred, the older brother of Santa (Paul Giamatti). Santa's success has left Fred feeling like a failure, but he may be the only person who can save the North Pole from a vengeful efficiency expert (Spacey). The movie opens in Vancouver on November 9.

Vaughn says that he has always felt that he's at his best when he isn't taking the work too seriously. He says that make-believe is not religion and that improvisation helps to remind him of that.

"I was talking to Kevin in England and I said, 'It is all childlike. It is make-believe,'" he explains. "So there shouldn't be such a religious approach to performance. If a play is sacred, there should be respect for it, but acting is childlike. Anyone who takes their work seriously can adapt to improv, because they will be able to find their way through the material."

Vaughn met Fred Claus director David Dobkin on Clay Pigeons. They went on to make Wedding Crashers together and have followed it up with this, another comedy, that Warner hopes will bring along Vaughn's Wedding Crashers audience. Vaughn says that although he was aware it might be difficult to get his fans out to a family movie, he felt the film could beat the odds.

"When we have tested the film, it has played well with all audiences. I think that is because Fred is just a big kid. The scenes that work for adults are smart and funny, but they are not risqué or shocking. We never had the need to go there to be enjoyable for adult audiences. What was most inspiring to me was that here is a genre [Christmas films] that has been done forever. But we forget that the good ones have some serious elements, whether you are talking about A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. This film started out as a bedtime story that evolved into an edgier film, but it's smart and funny and has some lessons."

Link: Fred Claus home page