ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim recently had the opportunity to sit down with Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Predator) and Golden Globe winner Jeffrey Wright (The Batman, No Time to Die) about their new movie Asteroid City, directed by Wes Anderson.
“In 1955, students and parents from across the country gather for scholarly competition, rest, recreation, comedy, drama, and romance at a Junior Stargazer convention held in a fictional American desert town,” reads the film’s synopsis.
Jonathan Sim: You guys are working with Wes Anderson again on this film. So I wanted to ask, what is it about Wes Anderson’s directorial style that separates him from other directors that you’ve worked with, and made you want to come back for Asteroid City?
Adrien Brody: Well, Wes is, as you can see from his work and from every frame of his films, he’s quite a unique filmmaker. He’s a real auteur and even though these films are vastly different, you really see the craftsmanship of him as an artist and his writing style and his use of language visually, and it’s really profoundly beautiful work, and very intricate, and that’s always a pleasure.
The writing is always fun and intricate and exciting, and he creates this wonderful sense of family, and that’s also very unique in the sense that everyone stays together. We work together. We come home and stay in the same hotel and dine at the same restaurant every night. And it’s just unusual in that sense. But if Wes calls, I think any of us just show up.
This is a very cosmic sort of film that kind of deals with aliens and stuff like that. So here’s a bit of a fun question. If an alien ever arrived on Earth and you could both show it at least one of your movies or shows, which one would be the one that you’re most proud of that you would show the alien to kind of paint yourself in that kind of light?
Jeffrey Wright: Most proud of? I’ve got a couple of that I kind of like, thankfully. I did a movie [Ride with the Devil] with Ang Lee many years ago, a Civil War film. That was one of the best experiences I had working on a film. And we were out in Kansas and Missouri riding horseback all day for six months. And it’s a film about the Civil War—did I say that?—told from an interesting perspective. So if I think an alien dropped down and wanted to get some understanding of the history of America and who we are, where we are, maybe that one. It’s also just a beautiful film, I think, and one that was kind of undermined by the studio at the time, so underappreciated. So for that reason, it has an even more special place in my cinematic heart.
Adrien Brody: I’d show him Predators, of course.
Oh, I love Predators.
Adrien Brody: Just to show ’em what it’s like here. You might want to get out of here soon.
Hey, that’s one of my favorite performances of yours.
Adrien Brody: Oh, thank you very much, it was fun.
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