When Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson arrived on Google‘s campus to film their new comedy, “The Internship,†which comes out Friday, they were in for a bit of culture shock.
“You assume that a lot of work gets done there, but it wasn’t evident,†Mr. Wilson said during a talk after the movie’s premiere in San Francisco last week, a reference to Google’s massage rooms and volleyball courts. “It just seemed like a nice resort.â€
Mr. Vaughn added, “It was definitely designed for people with more discipline than you and me.â€
Still, they learned the Silicon Valley language pretty quickly. In the movie, which Mr. Vaughn co-wrote and much of which both actors improvised, there are mentions of C++, being in beta, dog fooding and, randomly, Oracle.
Mr. Wilson even understands the tech world’s hierarchy, in which the old guard is replaced by the hot new thing, virtually overnight. After Mr. Vaughn explained why he wanted to set the film at Google, Mr. Wilson said dryly, “Didn’t you talk to I.B.M.?â€
Still, the two said they were hardly technophiles. Mr. Wilson told the audience of Google employees that his mark of tech savviness was getting a cellphone earlier than Mr. Vaughn, to which Mr. Vaughn replied, “I don’t know if these guys would consider that tech savvy.â€
If they are just getting used to cellphones, they certainly are not ready for Google’s new Internet-connected glasses, Google Glass, they said. They discovered that during a meal with a bunch of Google employees who wore Glass.
“We went to dinner and I realized they were all filming us, and that was like three wines in and I don’t know what happened,†Mr. Vaughn said.
And even if Google feels like a fun resort, Mr. Wilson learned the hard way that there were strict rules. At one point during filming, he got kicked off campus for trying to use his character’s costume badge instead of his real badge to get into Google buildings, and trying to go to a cafeteria where he didn’t have access.
“That didn’t go over well,†Mr. Wilson said. “It wasn’t all loosey goosey.â€
