We interviewed many musicians for the My Favorite Movie Issue, but what we might not have seen coming was the deep connection that some artists have with their favorite film. There are some hilarious comedies that people claim as their favorite, but for some the impact of their favorite movie goes much deeper than that. Such as Ezra Furman’s lifelong relationship with Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, and seeing herself in Harvey Keitel’s character. Or in this case, how Kevin Morby resonated with Jason Schwartzman’s character, Max Fischer, in writer/director Wes Anderson’s 1998 film Rushmore, the first time he saw it as a teenager.
Morby and Schwartzman made an immediate connection over our nearly two-and-a-half hour Zoom interview. Ironically, both of their partners, Schwartzman’s wife Brady Cunningham and Morby’s partner Katie Crutchfield (who records music as Waxahatchee), hail from Alabama. Which brought the possibility of a holiday meet-up and an exchange of cell numbers. Amusingly, Cunningham’s and Crutchfield’s names were the ones that appeared at the bottom of each artist’s Zoom window.
Both artists have had incredibly busy schedules and were gracious to squeeze in this time to talk. In addition to releasing a highly acclaimed album this year, This Is a Photograph, Morby was set to kick off a European tour within a few days of our conversation. And outside of music, Morby had recently thrown out the first pitch for his hometown Kansas City Royals and also interviewed one of his favorite authors, Rachel Kushner. Add this interview with Schwartzman to his list and he’s decidedly on a roll. Prior to launching his solo career in 2013, the 34-year-old musician was also in the bands The Babies and Woods.
Schwartzman has a full slate of cinematic projects on tap. Including, having just wrapped filming for the upcoming new Wes Anderson movie, Asteroid City, in Chinchón, Spain. And similar to Morby’s departure plans, at the time of the interview the 42-year-old actor was gearing up to travel to Germany to film a prequel to The Hunger Games’ movies. A musician (previously he was the drummer in Phantom Planet) and music buff himself, Schwartzman also has plans to bring back his crate-digging adventures to Sirius XM Radio, through hosting his Coconut Radio show sometime in the near future. And lest you think Hollywood movie stars aren’t punctual, Schwartzman was the first to beam into the call. [Note: The full interview between Schwartzman and Morby has been edited down to fit into the print magazine. What follows are the highlights, focusing mainly on Rushmore. At some point we might run the complete unedited interview online.]
Mark Moody (Under the Radar): Hi Jason, thanks for joining us to do this.
Jason Schwartzman: Oh, no, honestly, I’m flattered and a little embarrassed. [Laughs]
Mark: That Rushmore is Kevin’s favorite movie?
Jason: Well, yeah. I don’t know how to react. It’s really nice, especially when someone [you respect] likes your movie. I think that is so great.
Mark: Hi Kevin. I appreciate you both agreeing to do this. I had volunteered to interview Kevin, and then Kevin asked if we could get Jason involved, so that’s really cool. That it all worked out. Ironically, I’m from Houston, where the movie was filmed, and my dad graduated from Lamar High School in 1952, where part of the movie was shot. So where Max got expelled to, not the nice school. [Laughs] So that’s pretty wild.
Jason: The school was nice. Just so you know. I don’t want to tarnish your father’s legacy.
Mark: Kevin, I know you recently threw out the first pitch at a Kansas City Royals’ game. How was that?
Kevin Morby: Honestly, so scary. I pitched as a kid and I love baseball, even though I chose rock and roll over sports ultimately. But I still have the muscle memory of being able to pitch. So I was like, “Oh, I got this.” And I was practicing with my dad. The day [of the game], I woke up, and I felt so nervous. And I was like, “I don’t want to do this.” [Laughs] And when I was in the bowels of the stadium, they took me to this tunnel, and they’re like, “You can practice here.” So I brought my dad back. And I was practicing and I was so nervous that I was fucking the ball up and I was throwing it right into the ground. And then I’d overthrow too high. Really scared. My hand was really sticky was the problem, because of the nerves. And then I had to go through all this official stuff when you’re meeting people. When I finally walked out I [somehow] managed to get the pitch off. It went well.
Jason: No bounce? Good.
Kevin: The mascot actually didn’t catch the ball. And they warn you about that. But it was just too fast for him. [Laughs]
Jason: He wasn’t ready for that. He wasn’t ready for that kind of heat.
So do you all want to talk about the movie? Kevin, you’re supposed to be interviewing Jason, but if you could also get in there why you picked as your
