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It must be an exciting milestone for any actor’s career to work alongside a filmmaker like Wes Anderson, whose personal style within the industry is unmistakable and who often works with the talent he’s familiar with. For Maya Hawke, Asteroid City is that milestone project, along with Rupert Friend, who previously cameoed in The French Dispatch. In their interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, we find out what the audition process is like for an Anderson feature, the kind of feedback he gives, and even which of the aforementioned talent is a “huge diva.”
Both now stars in their own right, Hawke with her breakout role on Netflix’s Stranger Things and Friend in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Showtime’s Homeland, join an ensemble that includes Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, and Tilda Swinton. In Asteroid City, the stacked cast finds their way to an intimate little town in the desert of the American Southwest where Junior Stargazers—bright, young award-winning minds—and their families have been invited to take part in friendly competition, rest, recreation, and more. As with all of Anderson’s films, there’s more than meets the eye with this dreamy pastel village, as dramas, romances, and mysteries unravel around a world-changing phenomenon.
During their interview with Collider, Hawke and Friend give insight into a Wes Anderson film set, from the auteur’s notes on performance to the talented group of creatives he employs behind the scenes to create the whimsical visions we see in movies like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and now Asteroid City. You can watch the full interview in the video below or read along in the transcript to find out why Anderson likes to do one more take after the fiftieth one and which of his frequent collaborators “won’t look you in the eye.”
COLLIDER: If someone has never seen anything you’ve done, what’s the first thing you want them to watch and why?
MAYA HAWKE: I guess if they were trying to find out about me, I would want them to see the first job I ever did, which was a BBC limited series of Little Women. I just poured my heart out, and Jo is one of my favorite characters ever, and I’m still proud of my work I did there. I was really young, and I guess I feel like where I started would be a good place to start.
RUPERT FRIEND: For me, it would be a movie called The Death of Stalin because it was a chance to be as ridiculous as I think I am, and if you’ve never seen me before, you probably think that I’m a bit serious, and that’s definitely more my vibe.
[To Friend] You’ve worked with Wes before, [to Hawke] you’ve not worked with Wes. I’m just curious when you find out that Wes wants to meet with you, are you like, “Is this an episode of Punk’d?”
HAWKE: For me, it felt like that, but it didn’t happen that way. I think the first time you work with Wes is really different than the rest of the times because the first time I auditioned, and it was a long scene—kind of every scene I have in this movie, really, I did as an audition and sent them in. Then a couple of days later, I got the call that I had to go to Spain in the next 24 hours, and I was like, “When I get there, are they gonna be there? Is this real? What am I gonna arrive into?” So it was one of the most exciting couple days of my life. I rarely go out and celebrate having gotten a part, but I went out with all my friends, and we got a drink and went dancing, and then I was like, “I gotta go to the airport now!” It was just, like, so much joy in my heart!
I’m a big Wes Anderson fan, and people who are going to be watching this are big Wes Anderson fans. What do you think would surprise fans to learn about working with Wes and making a Wes Anderson movie?
FRIEND: Well, it’s tricky because I don’t know what they expect, these Wes Anderson fans. I don’t know how to think about what might surprise them.
HAWKE: Maybe the level of loyalty and collaboration that he embodies with not just his cast. There are all of these people, these artists, that don’t get the same kind of recognition as the actors do when a movie comes out, that aren’t doing these interviews or sitting here, but who have everything to do with what made this film amazing. From the head grip that does all of Wes’s movies to the props work to the [costume designer], Milena [Canonero]. Wes has built this team around him that works to execute his vision, of course, but in and of themselves are these extraordinary artists, and you really feel the weight of their significance and the respect that Wes has for them every day on set.
He’s such an artist, and he knows what he wants before he steps on set; everything seems so out of his brain. So what is it like as an actor where you’re trying to do specific movements to make Wes’ vision come true versus maybe finding it in the moment? It’s a different kind of acting or a different kind of performance, I would imagine.
FRIEND: Well, we had a good example of the opposite of that, which may or may not surprise you and your viewers, which is that our sort of musical number—the interlude—all it said at the end of that was, “Then they dance.” That was it. So that whole kind of exuberant sort of throw your hat in the air and grab each other and whirl off, that just happened on the spot. There was no choreography, there were no marks to hit, there was no kind of specificity other than the joy of the beginning of a new maybe love affair that we don’t know whether it’s ever developed.
HAWKE: I believe what he said on the day was, “Well, why don’t you just shuffle down towards the camera a little bit at a certain point, and then shuffle your way away, and let us see the kids,” and we said, “Oh, okay.”
FRIEND: And that was it.
That actually leads to my next question; some directors give a lot of direction and are very specific, and some will just give a few words. What is Wes like on set, and does he ever raise his temperature in terms of when he’s not getting something he wants? What is he like behind the scenes?
FRIEND: Never seen him raise his temperature.
HAWKE: [Laughs] I have a short story of what it looks like when I think his temperature does raise, which is not raised. He called me over and went, “[Whispers] Maya, how do I get everyone to stop using their phones on the set?” And I was like, “Oh, you’re furious, and that’s what furious looks like on you!” His temperature doesn’t rise. He doesn’t act out, he’s never cruel
FRIEND: No, he has limitless patience as well. So, let’s say you forget the line, or you don’t hit the mark or something—he’s excited to get to do it again. And when he’s gotten what he wants, we do it again, as Wes would say, “for the pleasure.” He would always say, “One more for the pleasure,” and it reminds you that making movies is a joyful thing, you know? We’re not digging ditches here. And so, if we’ve done it 40 or 50 times and it’s been very tiring, but we’ve got it, there’s a feeling of [gasps], so let’s just do it again and live in that moment for a second.
One of the things about Wes is when you look at the poster, you can see there are a few actors that like to work with him, a few names. What is it actually like working with such an all-star cast? I know like it’s so easy to be like, “Oh, it’s a great experience,” but this is really a murderers’ row of people.
FRIEND: Yeah, it is, and we sequestered together while we were making the film. It was COVID, so we made a bubble. So we got to know each other very well off-screen because, if you see in the film, the storylines are threaded, and you know, we don’t all interact on camera, but we definitely all interacted off-camera.
HAWKE: And there’s no hierarchy. So there’s not this feeling where it’s like, “Uh oh, this person’s walking on, and there’s their security team, and their box and their bubble and that dressing room, don’t knock on his,” like, none of that. He loves working with these big stars, but he kind of cuts down all the star frill around it, so it really just feels like being at a really great summer camp with wonderful, smart people who are really excited to have that kind of hierarchy-less acting experience.
FRIEND: I mean, Jason [Schwartzman] insists on sitting at the head of the table every night.
HAWKE: Every night, yeah. His ego is huge!
FRIEND: And he won’t look you in the eye. It’s very strange. But other than that, everyone’s pretty egalitarian.
I mean, Jason has done a lot of Wes Anderson films.
FRIEND: And he sort of wears that as a badge.
HAWKE: Yeah, he’s like, “I am the king.”
Also, he’s Spot in the new Spider-Verse movie; he’s a diva.
HAWKE: He’s a huge diva.
FRIEND: He does need to be taken down a peg or two, so if you see him, maybe remind him of the films he’s been in that didn’t work so well. [Laughs]
Asteroid City is in theaters now. To find out why Wes Anderson casts are always full of A-list actors, check out Collider’s interview with Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright below.
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