In 1998 Wes Anderson cast Jason Schwartzman as precocious high schooler Max Fischer in his breakout comedy Rushmore. Twenty-five years later, after remaining firm friends and constant collaborators, they reunite for Asteroid City, in which Schwartzman plays the dual role of Augie Steenbeck, a grieving husband and slightly harried father, and Jones Hall, a James Dean-esque young actor.
LWLies: Wes wrote Asteroid City with you in mind. Can you tell me about the first time he told you he was working on it, and how the film developed from there?
It would’ve been July 2019 that he mentioned he was working on something with Roman [Coppola] that he had me in mind for. He didn’t say much about it at that point, but he was excited. Maybe a month or two later – I was reading a book about Elia Kazan, and he wrote me an email saying, ‘I can’t say much, but look into Kazan.’ And I said, ‘That’s crazy, I have a book about him right here next to my bed!’
And then I was in Chicago, reading a book
