But few directors are as instantly recognizable asWes Anderson.
DEADLINE: Lets start withThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Is this part of an ongoing project that youre doing, or does it stand alone?
Wes Anderson (right) directs Benedict Cumberbatch (left) and Ben Kingsley in ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’Roger Do Minh/Netflix ©2023
Because for a long time Ive had this idea to doHenry Sugar.
So, Ive made some other short films that are separate, but theyre all Dahl.
And so, theres three other ones thatll be released one by one, or howeverNetflixwant to do it.
From left, Dev Patel as Dr. Chatterjee, Ben Kingsley as Imdad Khan and Richard Ayoade as Dr. Marshall in Roald Dahl’sThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.Netflix
DEADLINE: Tell me a little about the next three.
ANDERSON:Well, theres one whereRalph Fiennesplays a rodent exterminator.
Its a story calledThe Rat Catcherthat Dahl wrote, I think, in the 50s.
Thats gotRichard Ayoade, and its gotRupert Friend.
Just a little group.
Its probably 13 minutes, or something like that.Henry Sugaris the longest one [of the project].
Its more than twice as long as any of the others.
Then we also have one calledPoison.
Thats an old Dahl story.
Maybe from the early 40s, or mid-40s, I guess.
For that one, weve got Benedict Cumberbatch again, weve gotBen Kingsleyagain, and weve gotDev Patelagain.
So thats a completely different group fromThe Rat Catcher.
And weve also doneThe Swan, which is fromThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.
Thats essentially just Rupert Friend, who was great by himself.
And thats quite a short one as well.
DEADLINE: Why those stories in particular?
Are you done with Dahl after this, or will you be going back, do you think?
I just didnt see a way to do it.
And then it was the idea of using his description of it, really, that appealed to me.
I thought, Well, that would be fun to do.
I could see a way to do that.
And so thats what we did.
It felt suited toHenry Sugar, but maybe not to every story.
And so, I kind of found ones that I thought could be sort of performed.
And so thats how I picked the others.
In our house, we have a recording of Dahl readingFantastic Mr. Fox.
He did record himself doing quite a few of [his books].
Theres also a reasonable amount of documentary stuff about Dahl.
I said, Tell me what youre saying.
He was acting them out on his own, just in preparation.
And I was like, Start over, start over!
And so, the movie begins with Ralph completely improvising.
Every take was a bit different, because its Ralph just sort of channeling Dahl getting ready to write.
Ralph is so interesting and authentic.
DEADLINE: There are a lot of people in these films that youve worked with before.
Do they always know exactly what you want from them?
So much ofHenry Sugarseems incredibly perfect in terms of the performance, and the timing especially.
All that sort of stuff.
But everybody has their own way.
They seem to just have it.
Theyre younger, you know?
Benedict is interesting, because Benedict is probably the same age, but Benedict has a different thing.
Hes attacking the role this way and then hes attacking it that way.
I mean, normally when you work with Ralph, hes got everything he needs.
Hes got his role completely down.
Hes absolutely beyond word-perfect.
He has everything kind of absorbed.
ANDERSON:[Laughs] I think we mightve tightened it up.
Like, Oh, so now were going into the book that he found…
It has layers and layers and layers.
I liked that when I read it as a child, and it kind of stuck with me.
Did you ever see that?
DEADLINE: The Spalding Grey monologue movie?
And Jonathan Demme made the movie of it.
But then he also had these sort of side movies.
He did many documentaries and performance things.
Theyre not avant-garde films, but theyre films about sort-of-avant-garde artists or something along those lines.
Performances by people who were in the distinctly avant-garde world and had become a bit more broadly known.
Are you an avid theatergoer, and have you thought about doing theater yourself?
ANDERSON:I first saw Jeffrey inBasquiat.
And then, after that, Id see him in other movies.
I saw Mike Nichols movie, though.
Hes one of the few actors who played the part in the original production.
And hes so good in it.
He plays this character, Belize.
I go to the theater now and then.
When I lived in New York, I went more.
When Im in London, Ill go.
Its a Sam Mendes play.
Hes, I think, the best stage director.
I mean, I dontknow.
That was quite great.
And he didThe Ferryman, which was very good.
Is that a Jez Butterworth play?
Yes, it is.
I remember talking to Mike Nichols me and Noah Baumbach years ago.
DEADLINE: Do you get inspired by the physicality of theater?
ANDERSON:Yes, most likely.
Ive always loved that.
They all have a different world, a feeling, soundtrack, approach.
How is it possible to do that?
ANDERSON:Well, first of all, the key thing is that it doesnt happen all at once.
I mean, when you do a movie, it slowly accumulates.
One of our producers was James L. Brooks a great director, writer, and producer.
He kind of picked us.
Hed learned about us through Polly Platt, his first lieutenant, his collaborator.
They had children together, and they talked a lot.
She said, Peter, why dont you talk to Wes?
And she put him on the phone.
Particularly these earlier films.
I had seen them again and again and again.
I mean,The Last Picture Showwas a bit of a bible for me and Owen Wilson.
And so I talked to Peter.
He asked me some questions, like, How many days you got?
What are you going to do with that?
You focus on it, and you accomplish it.
You dont think about the whole thing.
And in terms of how to create a movie, thats usually how we do it.
We say, OK, well, lets just get this little bit done.
Anyway, thats my thought about it.
It was perhaps the clearest expression of your aesthetic.
ANDERSON:Well, I dont have an aesthetic.
To me, what I have is…
DEADLINE: Erm, I think some people will disagree with that!
ANDERSON:[Laughs] Which I totally understand!
Even I can say, Well, yes, I can tell thats the same person.
But its an invention, you know?
What I was doing inBottle Rocketwas what I had.
That was my aesthetic.
And it changed in this one.
We go from one place to the next, and we run around.
Its a certain kind of way to film a sequence that is not so typical for everybody.
And I do it a lot.
When we were doingRushmore, there was a scene that took place on a baseball diamond.
I had this whole scene planned.
It was with a big crowd, and we were going to use handheld shots.
We arrived in the morning, and it was absolutely flooded.
I said, Well, lets see how long its going to take to dry.
But it was clear that the scene would be about mud if we filmed on this baseball diamond.
I dont know if it’s possible for you to picture it.
[Laughs] I dont know if you even know baseball!
Its the edge of the pitch, you might say.
Well just use the little bit of set that we have.
And when I did it, I thought, Well, I liked that.
That was interesting and I enjoyed it.
And so I feel like Ive been doing variations of that ever since.
Thats why I do those because the baseball diamond was too flooded.
And often I feel like thats the way things kind of evolve when youre doing movies.
Ill go another direction.
ANDERSON:Well, my experience of it is totally through people mentioning it to me.
Ive never watched them because I get too … Im like … Its like when somebody says, Oh, so-and-so can really do you.
You know what I mean?
Do you really want to see their imitation of you?
DEADLINE: …Self-conscious?
Is that what Ido?
[Laughs] So I dont look at them.
Ive never seen them.
The only one I saw was The Ritz Hotel, which had done one.
But they never gave me any rooms.
DEADLINE: Ill put that in the piece.
ANDERSON:[Laughs] I think they should be aware of it.
I mean, I love The Ritz Hotel, but I do think they owe me some nights.
Its fun, even if I would say, Well, thats not really how I would do it.
I mean, theyre doing their own thing.
DEADLINE: Moving forward, youve been working very quickly lately.
You followedFrench Dispatchalmost immediately withAsteroid City.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Or are you taking a break?
ANDERSON:Well, before the Writers Guild strike began, we had just finished a script.
Roman Coppola and I had been working on a script.
So, when the time is right again, weve got a movie to make with Benicio Del Toro.
DEADLINE: And whats it called?
ANDERSON:That I dont want to say yet.
DEADLINE: Can you say anything about it, however cryptic?
ANDERSON:[Laughs] No, I dont think so.
DEADLINE: How do you feel about the strike, and how do you see it going?
ANDERSON:Well, its so complicated.
I mean, I have a slightly different point of view, because Im old.
I have some savings.
I know that feeling its so familiar of anxiety and uncertainty.
But what can I say?
The leadership of these guilds have to find an answer.
Theyve got to come together.
Not that it depends on them, its just that, somehow, the deals have to get made.
You have your own sort of rep company now.
Is there any actor that youd like to work with that you havent yet?
ANDERSON:Well, you know, we have Michael Cera.
Hes one of the other characters in this new story.
And hes somebody I probably met, I think, close to 20 years ago.
At least 18 years ago, something like that.
I met him with Harvey Keitel, so it must have been 2008 or something.
But, anyway, Michael Cera.
DEADLINE: And the same question about music.
Do you ever hear music and think, That would have sounded great in a movie?
DEADLINE: Is there a playlist in your head that youre hoping to use?
And weve used a lot of them up.
But, yeah, I have a little bit of music and a sound for this next movie.
Thats all I can say.
Its something that comes from movie soundtracks more than it comes from songs.
DEADLINE: Youve had a pretty storied career.
Youve worked with lots of great people, had a lot of unusual shooting experiences.
Is there anything youd still like to do, or see, or achieve?
ANDERSON:To me, the big thing is to be able to keep making movies.
I take a stab at make my movies within a certain economy, so I dont do huge-budget movies.
But not too modest.
I love building stuff for a movie.
I want to be able to keep doing that.
But theres definitely plenty of room for variation.
How does it all work?
How is it sustainable?
Obviously, the first thing is to figure out how to get everybody back to work.
