EXCLUSIVE: Director Wes Anderson Talks Bringing to Life ‘Asteroid City’

Wes Anderson is gearing up to release his next film, Asteroid City. We got the chance to hear from the director about bringing to life this new creation.

During the chat, Anderson talked how he came up with the idea for the film, his ensemble cast, casting Jake Ryan in the film, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.

On how he came up with the idea for Asteroid City: “Oddly, that’s not a question I’ve been asked specifically. I would say that the quick answer would be starting a movie or starting to write a script is usually not one idea. It’s a couple of ideas. Two or three things. And I would say for this one the three ideas were one, Roman Coppola and I wanted to write a part for Jason Schwartzman at the center of a movie that would be something he hadn’t done before. The second thing was the setting of 1950s New York theater. And the other thing was, we thought we’d tell a story of the play they’re putting on. We expanded it to the desert. And I guess it then became something like this interaction of a black and white New York stage and a color cinema scope-ish western cinema kind of story. Where everybody’s both an actor and the role they’re playing, and they kind of mix together. And that is how I got the idea for Asteroid City.”

On collaborating with his cast and crew on takes: “It’s a testament to show you that we get to collaborate and be supportive. These scenes sometimes have many things going on and many things have to be in place for a take to work. But also, the crew have to hit the marks exactly. I remember after one take, the crew all hugging because they got a good one.”

On reuniting with Jake Ryan on the film: “The thing that struck me was this character was gonna be Jake. We still read people. And Jake had done lots of other good work along the way. But the particular thing was, there’s a scene where he and Scarlett [Johansson] are on this train together. And this scene, he played it like an actor who’s taking a scene and interpreting it and in control of it.”

On his use of animatic to tell the story before filming: “I realize that there were scenes that I had done that I would’ve completely messed up, or scenes that I had completely messed up before, that I could’ve done right or better. So I started using animatic, and more and more doing them. It also became a thing where we build the sets. We can only build what we can build, but if you know exactly what you’re gonna shoot, then suddenly, “Well, we can build something really big. We can build something with depth here. We just aren’t gonna be able to go much to the left or the right, but we can do something here this way.’ It sort of is the start of how we build the sets. But then also, sometimes I say, ‘They were so good, we don’t need anything else.’ But if it’s in the cartoon, I’m required to shoot it.”

On what appeals to him about exploring grief: “We have these milestones in our lives and particularly as you get older. The dead begin to pile up. You go through this thing where you start to say, ‘I cannot believe how often you say the person who I would actually like to hear his or her point of view is this one, and I’m never gonna get the answer to this question I want to ask. I will never get the answer.’ That just starts to happen more and more and more. The power of these losses, it’s among the key milestones. You circle back to these things that you can’t quite find the answers about and that you talk about with your friends and your family and everything.”

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Photo credit: Roger Do Minh/Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features