THE EARLY MARKETING campaign for Matthew Vaughn’s new spy thriller, Argylle, is not what you might have imagined. It’s not focused on Henry Cavill as the flat-topped title character, a super-spy who makes Bond look like Bourne and Bourne look like Bananaman; nor is it built around Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, novelist and creator of said super-spy, who finds herself entangled in an actual espionage plot and going on the run with bona fide Bond/Bourne/Bananaman Sam Rockwell. It is, instead, all about a cat. But not just any cat. This is Chip, who belongs to Vaughn’s wife, Claudia Schiffer, and his daughters, and who has found himself starring in one of next year’s biggest blockbusters.
It wasn’t the plan. For the role of Alfie, Elly’s cat who accompanies her on her adventure, Vaughn had originally hired a professionally trained feline. One of the best in the business. “It was a very expensive cat,” says Vaughn. “But a) it wasn’t very cute and b) was useless.” So Vaughn, with utter ruthlessness, fired the cat, which meant he needed a replacement. Luckily, he had one in mind.
“I went home that night, and went up to my daughter’s bedroom where Chip sleeps in a little house that looks like a big tin of tuna,” explains Vaughn, “and said, ‘I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your cat for the next three months.’ I would literally drive to work with a cat in the back of the car with me, and then the cat would live with me in my trailer, and I would bring the cat to set when he had a scene. I became an animal handler.”