It is perhaps no accident that Jason Schwartzman made his screen debut as eccentric private school kid Max Fischer in Wes Anderson's Rushmore.
That film not only heralded the start of a long-term collaborative relationship between the actor and the Texan auteur, it also cast Schwartzman opposite his spiritual screen precursor, Bill Murray.
Schwartzman has had plenty of opportunity to expand his range since then, playing roles as varied as the king of France (Marie Antoinette), Ringo Starr (Walk Hard), an unlicensed PI (Bored to Death) and a sulky teen fox (Fantastic Mr Fox), but he retains something of Murray's charms. Watching him, we wait for a twinkle to shine through the deadpan.
Listen Up Philip, the new film from hotly tipped indie wonder Alex Ross Perry, never gives us that twinkle. In a film framed by Philip Roth-like narration, Schwartzman never flinches as Philip, a preening, young, self-absorbed author, who slowly and steadily alienates everyone else – including long-suffering girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) – in the film.
Literary script
“I had the same reaction from reading the script that most people have watching the movie,” says Schwartzman. “The relentlessness of the character is almost claustrophobic. And I wondered does there need to be something else here. But it was clear very, very quickly that any attempt to lighten him would make him seem worse.
“It was fun in a way because you rarely in your life get to be such an asshole. But I did keep apologising between takes. Especially to Elisabeth Moss. I felt terrible for her.”
It’s easy to see why Schwartzman fell for Alex Ross Perry’s dense and decidedly literary script. “Even if there was no movie reading, it would have been a really nice way to spend a day,” he says.
His own adventures in screenwriting – notably The Darjeeling Limited (co-authored by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola) – display a similar bent. The actor has subsequently popped up in Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
“It’s hard enough in life to find the people who you like and are your friends,” says Schwartzman. “So to find someone that you’re able to work with: that doesn’t happen very often. And Wes is both. We have a real friendship since I was 17. That’s almost more than half my life. It’s the kind of relationship where you know everything about each other. It makes the work easier because you have shortcuts and you have shared references: ‘You remember that day with that girl Deborah?’”
But then the unfailingly polite, randomly apologetic Schwartzman has always been a great collaborator, whether as the drummer and songwriter with Phantom Planet or the writer/producer of TV's Mozart in the Jungle.
“Just in general I love to collaborate,” he says. “I want to know what people think about things. I really admire people who don’t need to ask others. I love people who say, ‘I’ll take the red one and the purple one.’ I think, ‘Wow. How do they do that?’ I’m more like: ‘Do you think the blue one is too blue?’”
It is odd to think that Schwartzman, son of Rocky star Talia Shire and the late producer Jack Schwartzman, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, cousin of Nicolas Cage and Sofia and Roman Coppola – had little or no experience of the movieverse before Rushmore.
“I wasn’t one of those kids who knew the walkie-talkie codes on set,” he says. “I wasn’t on any film sets. We saw lots of movies. My mom loves movies and music and art. But she detests Hollywood. She detests ass-kissing. To the point where I say, ‘You got to not be so hard on this’.”
Family
He says he’s never known what to say when people ask him about acting. Hasn’t it ever come up around the family dinner table?
“No, but if I bring someone around to my mom’s house, I only have to leave the room for a minute and she’ll be talking about acting,” he says. “In every room there’s a script somewhere with highlighted lines. And she loves it. I really think she should set up an acting school at her house.”
Almost inevitably, he has worked with family. He played King Louis XVI in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and portrayed Disney songwriter Richard M Sherman in Saving Mr Banks while brother John was the film's cinematographer. He also starred in Roman Coppola's 2013 comedy, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.
“You have to be careful because you know you’re going to see them again for the rest of your life,” says the actor. “Though I feel like Wes is like a brother. So that counts for him too.”
Between films and composing – he still writes music every day – Schwartzman enjoys his time in a mini-matriarchy comprising his wife, Brady Cunningham, and daughters, Marlowe and Una. “Ever since I was a little kid I’ve wondered: ‘What are the girls doing over there?’ And now I know. Because I live in girls-town, I’m brushing dolls’ hair and I love it.”
Listen Up Philip opens June 5th
