EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Wright, Jake Ryan, & Adrien Brody Talk New Film, ‘Asteroid City’
Asteroid City is set to to be released tomorrow, June 23 and we got the chance to hear from three of the stars of the new film, Jeffrey Wright, Jake Ryan, and Adrien Brody.
During their conversation, the trio talked working with Wes Anderson, building camaraderie on set, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
On working with Wes Anderson:
Wright: “I’ll give an example. It’s maybe not the one that might be expected. You do inserts in films. And it’s about, 5, 10 minutes, a couple of shots, boom, the inserted object. And then you’re gone. We did an insert in this film that took about 60 takes. Four hours. But I understood why. It’s not a performance thing for me, but it was really about trying to find a certain cleanliness to the thing that we couldn’t quite achieve. We had a prop guy standing to my left, the lens here to my right, my body hiding him. So I flip up the flap on the holster, and the prop guy puts his finger on it, keeps it up. The camera, the frame, is below his finger. And then I slide my hand down and it worked. But it was kind of an equation that we had to figure out. And we figured it out. And it was the wildest, strangest thing. And, I kind of loved finding the answer.”
Ryan: “After Moonrise Kingdom, we sort of kept in touch. I would like to think that I had matured a little bit and vaguely understood what I was doing at this point. So when I got the audition for this, I was just excited to reunite. And after I got the part, I felt like I wanted to prove to myself that I’ve grown up a little bit”
On building cast comradery on set:
Brody: “We all stayed in the same hotel, and Wes would say, ‘Oh, we got to go.’ And several of us would hop on a golf cart with Wes, fully dressed in character. We would make our way with a golf cart on the edge of this road through town, through Spain, and arrive upon this magnificent set. It was just mind-blowing. The set was just as spectacular as it looks in the movie. And we would show up fully ready to roll and jump right into the scene”.
On their characters’ unique narrative responsibilities:
Bordy: “Well, I play the director of the play. It’s funny to play a director. The actor always knows his place. There’s always the director. And it just was really a special moment of the film because part of what’s so beautiful about the storytelling is there’s a bit of nostalgia for this time and place in ’50s Americana. Also the West and cinema and also a love for theater and the performances and the art of that. And that time in history was a big shift for the way acting and directing. Actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean and directors and actors like Elia Kazan. There was a chance to infuse some of that and a love for that and appreciation for that which is something that Wes appreciates very much as well. It was really lovely to infuse all of that as a part of this. This vast story telling.”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo credit: Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features