Interview with Wes Anderson (2000)    

Curated by the Onion AV Club and Cold Bacon

Onion: What’s your approach to integrating songs into your films? They play a key role in both Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.

WA: The songs are always a part of... That’s just always key stuff for me. Some of the ideas are kind of inspired by the songs, and I always want to use music to tell the story and give the movie a certain kind of mood. That’s always essential to me.

O: Do you ever hear a song and think, “I have to have that in a movie?”

WA: Yeah, I do all the time.

O: What’s an example of that, a case where a song actually made it in?

WA: Every single song that’s in Rushmore.

O: Really?

WA: Yeah. They’re all songs where... With Rushmore, I originally had songs I said I wanted to use in the movie, and then I did research in this certain area of music, British Invasion music. I would just listen to songs and I’d know what should go in there. There’s a song by the Stones called “I Am Waiting,” which I was listening to a lot when I was driving around, and suddenly I realized a certain part of the story... That whole part of the story evolved out of the feeling that that song has. It’s like it was right for a certain part of the story.

CB: So it was right for a certain part of the story?

O: Ignore him. So what drew you to the British Invasion in particular? Was it the school uniforms?

WA: Um, yeah. Sort of that feeling. That combined with the teenage-angst stuff.

CB: What about Coldplay? How come you didn’t use Coldplay in Rushmore? Igby Goes Down had Coldplay. They’re really popular.

WA:

CB: Songs played a key role in both Bottle Rocket and Rushmore.

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O: Some people would say that video is providing that.

CB: What are we talking about?

O: But I think Bottle Rocket is fairly rare as a movie that truly has found a second life on video.

WA: Video definitely provides that.

CB: Wait, what happened to Bottle Rocket?

WA: The sad thing is that watching a movie on video is not the same. And also, when something is discovered by people in movie theaters, it’s discovered by people who are all together, and there’s a sort of feeling of an event about it. And when it’s on video, it’s like something is being discovered in the library or something. It’s like having a second life in public libraries. It’s just like individuals, and it’s less of a... We can’t participate in it the same way.

CB: And this is especially interesting because did you know that two years from now, Landmark is going to show Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is one of your favorite movies, on the big screen, at midnight? It’s going to kick ass.

O: Listen—

CB: So hey, back in high school did you ever used to sneak out of class and hit Andre’s Tea Room right next to that Baskin Robbins. That place kicked ass. I think the Baskin Robbins is gone though. I think it’s a Krispy Kreme or something now.

WA: Umm.

CB: Are you saying umm or mmm?

WA:

O: Does it bother you to be potentially pegged as the head of a new movement? I know there’s a Film Comment article that mentions you as part of something called ‘the new sincerity.’ Do you pay attention to any of that?

WA: Well, I don’t know. Who else is in ‘the new sincerity?’

O: I don’t know. I think it’s just you at this point, and they’re waiting for people to line up behind you.

WA: Oh, well, I’m not waiting for that line to form, and I don’t expect it to. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be much of a movement in that direction. It sounds like one that could be boring for a lot of people.

O: Why is that?

WA: I don’t know. That’s probably just some glib answer. Movement? I would be into a movement. But I’m really not aware of any movement.

O: So you don’t plan to draft a Dogme ’95-style statement.

WA: It sounds like fun, but it also sounds like something I would be more likely to do when I was 14 years old.

CB: Are you saying Dogme ’95 sucks? Because I’ve never heard of it. I did see Dogma, though, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. That sucked, didn’t it? Would you say you could have made a better movie when you 14?

CB: Cool.

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