Interview: Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman of Rushmore By Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive film reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive film reviews by e-mail at no charge, send sub_script_ion requests to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it When Bill Murray accepted a role in the terrific off-the-wall comedy Rushmore, director Wes Anderson was absolutely delighted, but also a bit leery. I'd heard stories about him, said the lanky filmmaker, I wondered what this guy was going to be like. He's a commanding man who could just walk in and take over if he wanted to. And to top things off, I knew that he had thrown one producer in the lake and smashed somebody's glasses and stuff. But as soon as I met Bill I felt very comfortable with him. Now I believe that whoever he threw in the lake probably had it coming. Rushmore introduces young Jason Schwartzman as Max Fischer, a dynamic 15 year-old student of the Rushmore Academy who falls in love with a beautiful elementary school teacher. Murray plays Herman Blume, a depressed middle-aged alumnus of the school who befriends Max, only to become enamored with the same teacher. When Max learns of Herman's crush, he turns on the businessman, leading to a state of open warfare between the two. I met with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman on a brisk February afternoon on Chicago's Navy Pier. They were traveling the country promoting the film in a posh Rushmore tour bus. Together, they seemed less like a white-hot director and neophyte actor and more like giddy adolescent brothers on an extended camp-out. As we chatted, they passed a guitar back and forth, strumming gently while periodically elbowing one another and giggling. After performing an impressive medley of vintage Zombies' songs, Schwartzman, the 18 year-old son of Rocky's Talia Shire, discussed the unique experience of making his acting debut as the star of a major motion picture. Everyday is a new surprise, he said. I mean, real actors like Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Renfro have been preparing for this all their lives. A year ago, I was just doing regular stuff, you know? I wasn't supposed to be an actor, I was just supposed to be a kid. While some aspects of his new career, such as appearing on David Letterman's show, have left him overwhelmed, he tries to take things in stride. My mom is from the acting world and she taught me from an early age to keep a good head on my shoulders and stay grounded. So I'm doing what I always do, which is just kind of being normal. Having the weight of an entire film on his shoulders was intimidating at first. Everyone was depending on me, he said earnestly. It was like sending a first time photographer over to Vietnam in the '60s and telling him to take a cover photo for 'Life' that represents American youth and war and I'm like 'But I've never taken a class in photography, so how am I supposed to do it?' His initial scenes with Bill Murray were particularly rough. At first I felt like he was judging me, which is horrible, cause how can you be free and let go when you feel like that? But then I got his trust and I got Wes' trust and just did it. To help Schwartzman prepare for a restaurant scene where Max throws a temper tantrum, Anderson took a interesting route. Schwartzy and I went outside to pump him up, he chuckled. It was freezing cold and we ran around the hotel where we were filming and he was like running out in traffic and yelling at cars and getting into a level of craziness. So we ran, then we ran back inside, he spun around a lot, then sat down and did the scene again. That's the take you see in the movie. For Anderson, working with inexperienced actors is nothing new. Rushmore is only his second film. His first, the charming low-key comedy Bottle Rocket, was packed with first time actors. The adjustment for me was 'What do I do with guys who HAVE done it before?' Anderson co-wrote Rushmore with his friend Owen Wilson, who also co- wrote and starred in Bottle Rocket. The pair drew on personal experience for key elements in the film. I went to the Houston school where we shot the movie and Owen went to a similar school in Dallas, explained Anderson. We used to play each other in sports. The character of Max Fischer was influenced in part by one of Anderson's classmates. This kid got kicked out of my school, but he kept coming back there everyday. Around lunch time he'd show up in his uniform and stay for the day. They finally banned him from the campus. But he loved going to the school and he was a troublemaker. He couldn't help it, he sort of made problems happen. When not juggling extracurricular activities, romance and revenge, Max is also a prolific and grandiose playwright. That facet of the character came directly from Anderson himself. I wrote a lot of plays when I was younger, he said including one about the Alamo that was basically a three act war scene. We didn't have real explosives, but we had stuff flying and stuff being thrown all over the place. Now, Max would have done it right! Once the Max character was in place, Anderson and Wilson built the _script_ from there, expanding on the relationship between the young kid and middle-aged man, and peopling the story by borrowing from real life. Max's diminutive right-hand man Dirk, wonderfully played by Mason Gamble, is _base_d on Anderson's chapel partner from his school days, and Magnus, a booming Scottish bully with a mutilated ear, also came from the Houston academy. There's a kid we knew named James Buckan, said Anderson with a sly grin, whose ear was mangled, shot off in a hunting accident. Magnus' last name is also Buckan. Anderson clearly enjoys the family approach to filmmaking. Owen Wilson, whose portrayal of the blonde stoner astronaut was one of the few bright spots in Armageddon, was originally slated for a cameo appearance in Rushmore as a young doctor, but passed at the last moment. His brother, Bottle Rocket co-star Luke Wilson, jumped in to take his place. Andrew Wilson, another sibling and Bottle Rocket veteran, appears in Rushmore as a flustered coach. With his next film, Anderson plans to expand his repertory company. We're working on a _script_ that's set in New York, he said. It's about a family of geniuses with very bad judgment. The film will feature Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and a whole bunch of actors that you'll know, but people we've never worked with before. Kind of a big cast. It's going to be fun. He hopes to begin shooting by the end of this year. While basking in the glowing reviews for Rushmore, Wes Anderson understands that not everyone will appreciate his skewed sensibilities. I've been to film festival screenings, they're always great. But Luke Wilson and I went to one screening with regular people and afterwards these girls were talking to Luke, so I went over to eavesdrop. Barely containing his laughter, he continued, They were saying 'You were the best thing in the movie, we loved you!' And Luke, whose part was very small, thanked them and said 'Well, what did you think of the movie?' and they immediately go 'Oh, it sucked!' © 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott