Adrien Brody & Jeffrey Wright on Wes Anderson’s Style – Armessa Movie News

If you’ve seen a Wes Anderson film, you know he’s an auteur with a very specific style, and according to costars Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright, Asteroid City will deliver on more of what audiences love about his repertoire. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, long-time collaborator Brody and Wright, who previously worked with Anderson on The French Dispatch, discuss their relationship with the filmmaker and what it’s like on the set of one of his whimsical productions.

As with prior features such as Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City employs another staggering cast with Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson, and many others in another heartfelt tale that takes place in the Sonoran Desert. In a dusty little town, Junior Stargazers and their families are invited to partake in an itinerary of friendly competition, relaxation, and other activities. The convention lures a number of characters to Asteroid City, where they’re embroiled in dramas and romances and bear witness to an otherworldly phenomenon.

During their interview, Brody and Wright share with us what it’s like on the set of a Wes Anderson film, from the exploration of his vision to nailing that very specific dialogue. They also share insight into the director’s temperament, the process of nailing pacing within a scene, and the reasons behind Anderson’s affinity for big A-list casts. For more on Asteroid City, Brody’s upcoming film The Brutalist, and Marvel’s What If…? Season 2, you can watch the full conversation or read along below.

COLLIDER: Gentlemen, there are a million questions to talk about with this one, but I’m curious, you’ve been in countless Wes Anderson movies, and you’ve done one before this; what is it like when Wes wants you to do a movie? Is it a text? Is he calling you? Does he just say, “Hey, I want you to save these dates?”

ADRIEN BRODY: Yeah, it varies, I think. From my experience, sometimes he’ll shoot me an email, and it’ll be somewhat unclear but clear enough that it’s likely that you may be working together, you know? It’s often like, “What are you doing in May?” And it either means you’re going to Cannes or you’re starting the next project. [Laughs]

JEFFREY WRIGHT: What I find a little odd—and I guess some people respond in the negative—but he’s always uncertain as to whether you would want to work with him. [Laughs] He’s always a little bit uncertain.

BRODY: “No, I don’t know about that…” [Laughs] Yeah. “How would you feel about playing a director?”

WRIGHT: I’m like, “Wes, yeah, of course, bro. Yeah, I’ll make the time.” I mean, the first time, obviously, we didn’t have a relationship…

BRODY: Yeah, then he takes you to lunch. Now it’s just a text or an email.

WRIGHT: My agent was like, “Wes Anderson has this piece that he wants you to think about. Are you interested?” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m interested.” [Laughs] And he was in Paris, and I happened to be going to Paris with my kids, like a week after I got this call, so we had lunch at a place on Saint Germain called Le Select, and we sat down, and we had a good meal, and he described this idea to me. What was interesting was that the character that he wanted me to play was loosely based on James Baldwin, a little Tennessee Williams, A.J. Liebling, who was his food critic for the New Yorker, but the restaurant was one of Baldwin’s haunts during his time in Paris. So, Wes is incredibly careful, full of care, in consideration [of] his choices. And it may have been unconscious or subconscious, or conscious, but even in that first meeting, there was a bit of information that he was delivering about this piece that I really appreciated.

You’ve obviously both worked with so many directors. What is Wes like when he’s not getting what he wants? Does he have a temperature, or is it always cool and collected? And what kind of notes does he give you on set to help you craft that performance?

BRODY: I feel like I’ve developed a shorthand with Wes; I’m sure Jeffrey understands what I mean. You get a sense very early on of his specificity, and the writing style, and the expectation to adhere to certain aspects of that style, and not all directors have that. But you know going in that you have to be extremely prepared. And Wes is always cool, you know, he’s never really–

WRIGHT: Throwing headsets…

BRODY: No, there’s never that. It’s an exploration, but we are all setting out to achieve something very specific, and Wes uses tools that are very helpful, like an animatic, that have visual and very detailed aspects of delivery within those. So, once you understand that, it’s a matter of building something unique to you and the character within that space. Another thing that’s pretty evident in his work is pace. Even from when we started on [The Darjeeling Limited] many years ago, we’d nail a scene, and it would feel great—a lot of his work is shot on moving masters with very complex elaborate setups, but it’s one shot, and therefore there are no cutaways and so the pace is very specific—and he’d say, “Great, we did that in a minute-twenty, let’s see if we can do it in 40.” And we’d have a stopwatch going, and we’d do the scene again, and he’d go, “That was awesome! Great, 56 seconds. Let’s try it one more time. Let’s try to get a 40.” And if you could get to 40 with all the beats, it’s kind of an amazing thing.

WRIGHT: Yeah, I think his way of getting what he desires, what he envisions, is to just keep doing it, and he chooses everyone he works with for very specific reasons. He has a sense of what you’re able to do, and at times maybe you think you’ve gotten there, and he wants you to go a little farther with it, and that’s cool. I love that. I love working with a director who has an appreciation for what I do but wants more of it, you know, and he pushes you in the best way, in a gentle way, to get there.

One of the things that he’s very specific about, obviously, is the language, and the language has to be exact. With another director, I might kind of bristle at that, but his language is specific for a reason. He understands a comma, you know, which I just– I adore that. I love that. And so, I know if I’ve shifted something in a way that doesn’t serve the purposes of the language, I know that it could be done better.

BRODY: And you start to self-correct.

WRIGHT: Yeah! [Laughs]

BRODY: That’s the crazy thing; you understand implicitly what he’s looking for, so a lot of the work is really about the preparation.

As an individual for each of you; obviously, I’m looking forward to What If…? Season 2, and I know you can’t say much, but whatever we can get; and also, The Brutalist—I can’t wait—so what can you tease people about it?

BRODY: Well, Brady Corbet is an amazing filmmaker. I’ll tease you that because he is just the real deal, and visually, it’s spectacular. I did this film where I play an architect who basically survives the Holocaust and immigrates to the United States and tries to start a life here. He’s very driven, and it’s all the hardships, as you’d expect of being a Jewish immigrant, or an immigrant in any capacity, but of that time, and it’s just beautiful. It’s really beautifully written, it’s eloquent, it’s very timely, and it’s the kind of work I dream to do. So, yeah, I’m really grateful to have shot that.

What can you tease?

WRIGHT: Oh… There’s some stuff coming. Yeah, more of the same and then some extra.

[Laughs] That’s a very good answer.

BRODY: [Laughs] Nice.

Asteroid City is now playing in select theaters. For more on capturing their performances with Anderson, check out Collider’s interview with Scarlett Johansson and Jason Schwartzman below.