When you talk to Owen Wilson on the phone, there’s a point in the conversation in which you kind of forget he’s a famous person and the interview kind of evolves (or devolves, depending on your perspective) into something that more resembles two people who just decided to hop on the phone that day and talk about their favorite movies. At least, that’s the only way I can think of to explain how the following includes Wilson’s insights on everything from Goodfellas to The Deer Hunter to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
Wilson is an interesting interview in that he displays such a sense of curiosity in the questions he’s being asked that, at times, he seems to be the one asking the questions. Wilson is promoting No Escape, a movie about a family trying to flee a foreign country that has just experienced a coup. When I compare the tone of the film to something more out of the horror genre than action, Wilson earnestly wonders why I think that and then starts talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark and Platoon. It was then I realized, oh, really anything could come up. (At one point, Wilson deconstructs the idea of if his 4-year-old son, Ford, realizes if his father is the voice the the lead character from Pixar’s Cars series, Lightning McQueen. What follows is the most adorable The Manchurian Candidate reference of all-time.)
It’s probably not a big surprise that Wilson is such a movie fan – this is someone who co-wrote movies like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums with Wes Anderson – but it may come as a surprise that Wilson really isn’t a big fan of comedies, especially when you think about how many comedies he’s starred in over the years. But Wilson does explain why one of his favorite movies is Punch Drunk Love, which is why he was so excited to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice last year. (And he didn’t really understand what was going on in the plot, either.)
In recent interviews, I’ve seen people ask you about being in an action movie again, but No Escape plays more like a horror movie.
That’s funny, I wouldn’t think of it as a horror movie, but maybe some of the emotions that it stirs, being a parent, those are horrific situations to find yourself in.
But when I think of an “action” movie, I think of fun explosions. This has imagery I’d more likely see in a horror movie.
So you thought the visual style led to that? That’s interesting.
Well, there’s a scene in which we see people in the movie executed in the street in the same vein we might see in a true horror movie.
Yeah, yeah. Like, sometimes in an action movie, I guess it can feel like a cartoon type of violence.
Right, where an audience might even laugh.
I love Raiders of the Lost Ark and people are getting killed in that movie, but it doesn’t seem like it; it doesn’t seem quite real. So, when that guy takes out the sword and does all the tricks, and then Indiana Jones just takes out his gun and shoots him. So he kills him, but it doesn’t really seem like it.
And it’s hilarious.
Yeah, it’s actually one of the funniest scenes in the movie. So if these filmmakers had done that movie, I guess they’d make it where you see the blood come out.
I’m probably making too big a deal about this.
No, no, no. If you’ve been unlucky enough to see violence in real life, just a fight on the street or something, it is always pretty shocking and scary. And it can sometimes bubble up out of nowhere – yeah, it’s scary.
I should probably say “horror vibe” as opposed to “horror movie.”
I’m sorry if I keep talking…
No, you’re supposed to…
But I’m thinking about it, too. I don’t want to be in a position to be blowing our horn about the movie because that’s not my personality, but if it does sort of make the violence seem more scary and real — if the movie is sort of able to pull that off — that can be pretty interesting when I’ve seen other movies that do that. So when you see – and, obviously, this is nothing like Platoon — but when you think about a horrific scene… I remember seeing that scene where they go into the village and they end up burning the village down, but Charlie Sheen comes in as, I think, it’s actually Matt Dillon’s brother, Kevin Dillon?
Bunny.
Yeah, Bunny! First, John C. McGinley comes in, “Come on, Bunny, let’s go. No one saw anything.” And he’s looking at the kid who just doesn’t understand, I think he might even being handicapped. And you just hear the sound of the mom talking and the language is so different than English, and it drives him some sort of crazy with some kind of blood lust. Then Charlie Sheen comes in, and he starts going crazy for a second, then kind of stops. Or the scene in The Deer Hunter with Russian roulette…
That scene gave me nightmares.
You see Christopher Walken’s face and that’s horrifying.
What kind of movies do you look for these days? You will do cameos or star in so many different types of movies, I can never figure you out, which makes you interesting.
Well, I guess I’m not looking for anything! So I’m never thinking, I’ve got to go find this role to play. I do know that if I’m watching a movie or renting something – or watching something on Netflix, we’re really not renting anymore – I don’t tend to watch comedies. I tend to watch dramas or a thriller or something. I just prefer watching those, I don’t know, I just enjoy those movies more because it seems like a lot of comedies to me aren’t that funny. Or a movie that isn’t necessarily a comedy, like Sideways, now that’s a really funny movie to me – but it also has something that’s very movie to me, so the humor has this emotion. Even Raging Bull has some scenes between the brothers – some crazy, intense scenes – but there’s some really funny scenes, too, between them. I guess because it feels real.
Another Scorsese movie, Goodfellas, is hilarious. I didn’t get to see it in theaters when it came out because my parents wouldn’t let me, but it screened at Tribeca Film Festival this year and the audience was howling.
Goodfellas is hilarious! Yeah! I mean, that scene with Joe Pesci, the “What did you say?” “I just said you’re funny,” that’s almost one of my favorite scenes in a movie because that has everything in there. It’s very funny, then it gets very scary and it feels very real because it seems like real life. I read someplace that Joe Pesci had witnessed something like that, and that’s how he had that idea.
I guess it doesn’t surprise me you don’t watch comedies, even though you’re in a lot of them. Judging by the movies you’ve co-written with Wes Anderson, those aren’t really “broad comedies.”
I love Punch Drunk Love.
That’s my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie.
That’s my favorite! That’s my favorite!
People will argue Boogie Nights, or There Will be Blood or even the one you’re in, Inherent Vice, but I just love Punch Drunk Love.
There’s not a more kind of romantic, but also very emotional but then really funny – that was definitely my favorite movie of the year when it came out.
In Inherent Vice, you looked like you were having the time of your life.
Now, with Inherent Vice, you talk about me having a good time in the role. I had a good time working with Paul and I was excited that he would cast me – just the chance to be in his movie based on what we were just talking about, loving Punch Drunk Love and some of his other movies. I didn’t understand the script when I read it.
I don’t think many people understand that movie. When I saw it a second time, I just conceded it’s more about the experience than a specific plot point.
I saw Wes Anderson last night in Gramercy, and he was talking about how he really loved Inherent Vice. But, for me, playing the part, there haven’t been many parts that, while I’m acting, have less of an idea how this is going to fit in. I just enjoyed the process. And it was interesting the way Paul directed it: He was pretty gentle; not a lot of direction. We’d do a lot of takes and stuff, you know, but it would be just, “Okay, let’s try again.” But I never quite knew how anything would fit together or work out. Then when I saw the movie, my favorite stuff was maybe just some of those scenes with Doc and the girl and the Neil Young music – you know, where it just gives a feeling that Doc really loved her.
I love that Paul Thomas Anderson compared Inherent Vice to Top Secret!
Yeah!
So, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s mind, he thinks he made Top Secret!
I don’t get that! That’s what I don’t understand, because I remember when we were doing press hearing him saying that, because it’s like I never knew we were trying to make Top Secret! — he never told me that.
When he talks about Punch Drunk Love, he just nonchalantly refers to it as a “Sandler movie” and that he’s a big fan of Sandler’s movies. I think, in his mind, he thinks he just made any old Sandler movie.
[Laughs] Or maybe he’s being a little self-deprecating or something.
Maybe. But I’m not sure.
I don’t know. I don’t know, either! Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Missouri.
You grew up in Missouri? And now you’re in New York. And you’re saying your parents wouldn’t let you go see Goodfellas.
It wasn’t so much they wouldn’t let me, but they wouldn’t take me.
Yeah, the movie didn’t come out and they weren’t excitedly saying, “Okay, Mike, get ready, we’re going to see Goodfellas.” They weren’t steering you towards it.
That same year, I had to sneak into Pretty Woman by buying a ticket to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Was that the one with Vanilla Ice?
I think that was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
Now, it’s had such a big comeback. I have a 4-and-a-half-year-old and his whole world is Ninja Turtles.
What does your son think of Lightning McQueen? He knows it’s you, right?
But he knows it the way The Manchurian Candidate knows it. It’s almost because he’s been told so many times by his mom, “Dad is Lightning McQueen,” and he’s always heard that. So you’ll say, “Ford, who is Lightning McQueen?” and he’ll say, “You are.” [Laughs] But I don’t know if there’s a real feeling behind that, that I really am Lightning McQueen.
Cars 3 is being made now, so maybe that will help.
Yeah, we’re going to get another crack at finally making that have some emotional resonance for Ford that his dad is Lightning McQueen. When Ford was born, people sent nice presents and stuff. But one of the best presents I got was from John Lasseter and Pixar – and it was just a onesie for Ford with a picture on the onesie of Lightning McQueen and then underneath it said, “My Dad.” So, that was pretty cool. But I think that’s what I meant about The Manchurian Candidate, it began that early.
It’s kind of remarkable there aren’t four Wedding Crashers movies by now. Not that I’m saying I’d even want another one…
Exactly!
Because that movie is good as its own entity.
And it does seem like if a movie does well, lately, they try to franchise it. And, for whatever reason, we never got around to doing it.
And now you have a sequel to Zoolander coming out, a movie that didn’t do as well at the box office.
[Laughing] Yeah, maybe it will begin a new trend to doing sequels to movies that didn’t do very well.
And then it will be a a huge hit, so there can’t be a third one.
[Laughs] Yeah, exactly.
Mike Ryan has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
