For Asteroid City, in competition at the 76th edition of the festival, a press conference in which the actors told why they love Anderson, and Anderson why he loves actors.
At the press conference of Asteroid Citypresented in competition at Cannes Film Festival 2023beyond Wes Anderson only the actors of its cast are there. Only a few – everyone would not have entered, even if the journalists came out – but many enough: Scarlett Johansson e Maya Hawke, Bryan Cranston e Jeffrey Wright, Stephen Park e Rupert Friend. And then, of course, Jason Schwartzman.
Everyone does nothing but praise Anderson, in a way that appears sincere and never flattery, but the most affectionate is obviously Schwartzmanwhich Anderson chose at a very young age to star in Rushmore.
“After so many years and so many movies together, it’s always an honor for me to work with Wes. Also because our group is always enriched by incredible people. I was 17 when I first met Wes,” Schwartzman says. “Apart from my parents he was the first person over twenty I met who was interested in asking me questions and hearing my answers. And I still feel the same thing today: if we’re here it’s because Wes wants to know about us, he’s curious, he sees things in us that we don’t know about ourselves”.
“Everything on his set is super interesting, but above all a community is created, and everything is useful for the process and for the work, because what he does creates efficiency,” he says Jeffrey Wright. “Wes loves the work process of us actors. Not because he’s so interested in it, I don’t even know exactly why I’m interested in doing it for a living. But he sure does care.”.
Scarlett Johansson talk about the set of Asteroid City, the first live action film with Anderson, after having been one of the voice actresses of Isle of Dogs, as of something similar to the stage experience. “Being there, in that huge set was intense, and being inside that world physically, in such a tangible way was like doing theatreand it was an experience that gave emotions and satisfactions”.
“There are no hierarchies, everything flows which is a pleasure, it is not pressure: it is wonderful to work with Wes”, adds Maya Hawkewhile for Bryan Cranston Anderson “is like a conductor, and we are the players who concentrate on their instrument without knowing exactly what the overall sound will be”.
When Stephen Park he says that, before shooting, he was shown the animatic (an animated storyboard) of the whole film, with Anderson to do the voices of all the characters, and suggests that it should be shown, the director opposes with a smile: “No, because the animatic is not the film. The film is what is born on the set with you actors. With cast. The mood I want to create on set influences the film, I choose to avoid a lot of post-production because I want things to feel as real as possible for the actors on set. If I make films,” Anderson says later, “it’s because I like being with actors. And in this film there are actors who play the role of actors who play the characters.
Anderson also recalls that “on the first set I set foot on, which was mine, that of Bottle Rocket, I immediately understood the actors are different from all the others: from the rest of the crew and from the director. Because if you’re an actor you don’t just make films, you are the film. And this is one thing that connects all the actors together. It’s an amazing thing”.
Asteroid City, the result of this idyll between Wes Anderson and his actors, will be in Italian cinemas from September 14, and this is its new official trailer: