The second full day of the Cannes Film Festival was also the first day of the rain that marred much of the event this year. I was unprepared for it, and so when I hurried from the 8:30 AM screening of “Reality” to the beachfront location where I was set to conduct my “Moonrise Kingdom” interviews, I was just barely ahead of an ominous cloud front and the first few strangled bursts of precipitation.
Because of the weather, everyone found themselves inside, waiting for the interviews, doing their best to stay dry. I sat down at a table with James Rocchi, both of us working to write up “Reality” as we prepared for our time with the cast and with Anderson. While we were sitting there working, Jason Schwartzman walked in. They told him he’d have a half-hour until they needed him, so he dropped into a chair at the same table as Rocchi and me and just started chatting movies.
One of the things I’ve noticed about Schwartzman over the years is that he is ridiculously approachable, and he has a genuine curiosity about what other people think of things. He wanted to hear about movies Rocchi and I had been seeing, and about what we were looking forward to, and then he and James moved on to a conversation about the Canadian band Sloan. By the time they called him away to start his interviews, it had been almost the full half-hour, and it flew by.
Schwartzman, of course, first registered for viewers in “Rushmore,” and in “Moonrise Kingdom,” his one big sequence is opposite Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, the young actors whose unorthodox love story kicks the film’s story into motion. I sat down with those two together, and already, there’s a big difference between them in personality. Hayward seems to be adjusting to the notion of doing press and attending a festival, while Gilman seems like… well, a great kid. And a remarkably unaffected kid, all things considered.
I get the feeling this was a lovely experience for everyone in the film, and I think our chats convey some of that, hopefully.
“Moonrise Kingdom” is playing in NY and LA now, and will continue to expand to more theaters this month.