This Tuesday, we joined the all-star cast of Asteroid City during the virtual press conference of Wes Anderson’s latest movie. Out June 21st, Asteroid City premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, which was the second time that the director introduced a movie there, after The French Dispatch in 2021.
The cast of Asteroid City includes one of Anderson’s favorite actors, Adrien Brody, but the cast ensemble also comprises, well, the rest of Hollywood, really: Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, and Steve Carell, amongst many, many, others.
The official plot of Asteroid City reads:
“The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.”
Asteroid City Press Conference
During the press conference, Wes Anderson declared that, while Asteroid City comes from many different ideas and places, his longtime collaborator, producer, writer, and actor, Roman Coppola and himself wanted to write a part for Jason Schwartzman, to be at the center of a story he hadn’t done before.
Coppola and Anderson previously worked together on different projects, including The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox, but also on commercials, including an international campaign for Stella Artois, and Prada.
“Roman Coppola and I wanted to write a part for Jason Schwartzman (…) we didn’t know what it was, but we had a few notions what this character was going through’’ declared the director.
Their second source of inspiration was the aesthetic of a 1950s New York theatre, some kind of Golden Age, Broadway-ish atmosphere, mixed with a pinch of actor’s studio in it.
As we said before, Anderson likes casting Hollywood’s biggest stars (sometimes by dozens) in his movies. But do actors say ‘’No’’ to Wes Anderson? According to the latter, they sometimes do.
For Tom Hanks, who had never worked with Anderson before, it was an easy ”Yes”.
‘’I haven’t seen a Wes Anderson movie that I didn’t wish that I was in ‘’ declared Hanks.
“I met Wes at a restaurant in Rome,’’ recalls the legendary actor, before declaring that Anderson told him he was ‘’looking for a retired, Ronald Reagan type’’ for this character. ‘’I’m your man! ’’ answered Hanks.
Stepping into Wes Anderson’s world is a dream for many actors. But the director is also famous for being able to carry the magic after wrapping a day of shooting once they all step away from the set.
If actor Lyna Khoudri (who worked with Wes Anderson on The French Dispatch) told us in 2021 that she truly felt like she was part of a family -Anderson had even bought everyone the same pair of slippers they would all wear at dinner every night-, Scarlett Johansson also confirmed she had the best experience working on Asteroide City:
“There was a sense of camaraderie. (…) What touches me about the movie is how supportive all the performances are of one another. It’s noticeable; it’s a beautiful orchestra. When I got there, my work was truncated into a short amount of time; I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Jason. That feeling is very unusual (…) it’s so vivacious, exciting, even just to come to set to watch other actor’s performance.’’
Maya Hawke also declared: ‘’Wes sort of cut off the fat and ridiculousness out of the movie-making process. So many times (…) you have to do chemistry reads (…), and Wes is like: ‘Why don’t we just have dinner every night together? Wouldn’t that be fine? And actually, you guys are off tomorrow, and you should go for a walk.’ And so we did, and we went for bicycle rides and stuff.’’
She continued: “I remember sitting and watching Scarlett and Jason do that incredible scene between that window. And I would come and sit next to Roman and his little monitor, and then after a little while, Adrien would come over, he’d be sitting there too. (…) It always felt like we were lifting each other up.”
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Tom Hanks added: “You know these old movies about Hollywood, and they’re on the lot, and there’s a cowboy, a showgirl, a gladiator, and there’s a guy dressed up like he’s in Charles Dickens: That’s how it’s like, hanging around, ready to work. We’re all in our costumes, all day long.’’
Adrien Brody, who has now worked five times with Wes Anderson, continued: ‘’We all stay in the same hotel, and Wes will say ‘We gotta go,’ and several of us will hop on a golf cart with Wes, fully dressed in character, so they’ll be an alien and a cowboy (…), and we’ll make our way through town, through Spain, and arrive upon this magnificent set. It’s just mind-blowing.”
As for Rupert Friend, he recalled one of his favorite memory from filming involving Bill Murray himself. Murray didn’t work with Anderson on this movie for the first time in many years because he got Covid right before arriving to set. Long story short, Steve Carrell replaced Murray a few Covid protocols later.
But this didn’t stop the actor from paying the crew a visit after his recovery. Rupert Friend explained: “(When) we have our musical number, it just says ’They dance.’ We kept saying, ’When’s the choreographer coming? When is the rehearsal?’ (…) And we got there, we hadn’t had any of that, and it was just ‘go for it’ (…) And when we did that thing, I threw my hat in the air, and behind the camera that day, Bill Murray had come to visit, and he just caught it. And it was just perfect.‘’
For Steve Park, seeing the film multiple times was a new experience every time: “Wes started sending us photos, (…), the soundtrack, the animatic. Then, to actually see the film, it’s mind-blowing. I saw it first just with my wife, and then I saw it again at Cannes the second time, and it felt like I had not seen it before. Like, I was emotionally struck the second time, in a way that I wasn’t the first time. And I am looking forward to seeing it again (at the premiere) because I know I am going to see all these new things. There is so much to savor in this movie.’’
Astroid City opens in New York in LA on June 16th before the wide release on June 23rd.
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