Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend on the Optimism of 'Asteroid City' (2024)

The internet of 2023 has transformed Wes Anderson from director to design aesthetic through countless generative AI videos and an enduring TikTok trend mimicking his distinct visual style. To watch Anderson’s actual output in Asteroid City is to realize that boiling him down into snackable social media content cannot fully capture his magic. From the whimsical wonder and meticulous mise-en-scène, there’s no replacement for the real thing.

Asteroid City depicts a theater company staging a teleplay at a 1955 Junior Stargazer convention in the titular desert town. For Anderson, the premise is a springboard for crafting frames within frames, which he then proceeds to summarily collapse. The film upholds and undermines his signature all at once. Yet all these crisp compositions also need a committed cast of actors placed within them, delivering his droll dialogue with amusing affect. Most members of Anderson’s assembled troupe are playing actors who are also playing their characters, adding another layer of complication to a film that belies its seemingly straightforward construction.

At Asteroid City’s press junket, I spoke to cast members Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend. The duo shares several scenes as, respectively, elementary teacher June and singing cowboy Montana—and their characters share a spark of affection for each other that catches fire in the film. Our conversation covered the distinctiveness of Anderson’s dialogue, what’s unlocked by stepping onto one of his sets, and why his creative mind cannot be reduced to an algorithm.

Each of you all are no strangers to directors with really specific dialogue, like Armando Iannucci and Quentin Tarantino. What makes Wes Anderson distinct?

Rupert Friend: Those are three amazing [filmmakers]. I think that each of [them] is true to their own way they see and tell a story. I haven’t worked with Quentin, but actually Armando is very improvisational. And, oddly, people don’t know this, Wes can also be very improvisational, especially with physical stuff. For example, Maya’s and my dance was pretty much made up. I would say that the specificity of the vision is what connects them as auteurs.

Maya Hawke: I agree, but I think one thing that separates Wes, for me at least, is that there’s a real core of positivity in his movies. His outlook on the world is, from my exterior impression, fundamentally optimistic. I don’t know that that’s true about all the different movies from some other great directors. He’s very dreamy and optimistic.

How much of the film is unlocked for you through reading the script, and how much of it comes alive whenever you step into the world on set?

MH: Both of those things unlock it in different levels, and it’s unlocked further when you meet your castmates and the world just keeps growing.

RF: The script sparked so much because it’s so well written and a beautiful piece of writing. But then when you get to set, as Maya said, and you see the set design, the costumes, and the props, it just keeps getting richer and richer.

How does this compare to other period-set work that you’ve done? Obviously, it’s set in some version of the ’50s, but Wes Anderson’s ’50s. Can you research or prep like you would for a normal period drama?

RF: To me, having been in [movies in] a number of different periods, I haven’t lived in any of them. I was not in the ’50s, nor was I in the 1850s. In a sense, there’s a bit of a leap of imagination. But, obviously, these periods which existed, one can research. I think when you’re working with a visionary director, there’s such a degree of mutual trust that I certainly just want to hand over to him and say, “Show me inside your mind.”

MH: I do, too. It almost feels like it’s more of a fantasy world inspired by this era than it is, like, “Everything has to be exactly precise.” Though if you talk to the props masters, everything is precise. It’s all the right stuff. When you’re working with such amazing people, you can relax and trust that the research has been done.

Maya, I’m sure you’ve seen in the past year, there’s been quite the explosion of Wes Anderson-inspired AI and the TikTok trend. With you having now been in his world, do you think those things capture the true magic of Wes Anderson?

MH: Absolutely not. Firmly no. You’re directing that question at the right person because Rupert has no TikTok and has never seen a TikTok. But I would just say, “No.” I think that they’re funny jokes! But the point of Asteroid City is that it’s a new, invented landscape. When you look at those things, like AI-generated “Wes Anderson directs Harry Potter,” they can’t give you a new story. They can show you how someone’s aesthetic might apply to an old story, but it’s not a new story. I can tell you that every single decision Wes makes isn’t formulaic. It’s original. It’s spontaneous. It’s precise. It’s not based on some kind of math problem. You cannot boil down the imagination of a creative into an algorithm. It’s not possible.