The one actor Owen Wilson wants to work with the most: “I’ve always loved him”
Chances are, if you’re watching a movie with Owen Wilson in it, you’re going to have a great time, and he shows no sense of slowing down.
The blonde-haired star has done everything from laugh-out-loud comedies to introspective dramas to big-budget superhero romps, and even just looking at his output over the years is enough to make you say, ‘Wow’ in his signature gasp.
Wilson’s extraordinary career has brought him into contact with some of the biggest stars of all time, and from his own generation, he’s rubbed shoulders with some of the best movie comedians of the early 2000s. He, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and others helped revolutionise funny films and set a gold standard that is still being chased to this day, and then there are all the actors he’s worked with as one of Wes Anderson’s regulars, forming a whole discussion in and of itself.
Even in that, amazingly, there are some stars he still hasn’t shared a bill with, which came up at a workshop organised by the El Gouna Film Festival in 2018, where the brother of Luke was asked a number of questions about his life and career. One query concerned the actor that he was most keen to work with, and his answer was the one and only Nicolas Cage. “I’ve always loved him,” he explained, and nobody was going to disagree with him.
The closest Wilson got to achieving his dream was on the set of Wedding Crashers, wherein Cage was considered for the role of Chazz Reinhold, an eccentric man who instructs the lead characters in the way of crashing private events. Unfortunately, this never happened, with Will Ferrell stealing the show instead.
Some of you who know a little bit about the Cagester might think Wilson is mad for wanting to spend time with him. His bizarre preparation methods may delight us internet film nerds, but they sound like they’d be absolutely hellish to try and navigate in person.
Best case scenario, you find him flinging himself around his trailer pretending to be a cobra, worst case scenario, you’d get a movie like The Cotton Club, where Cage apparently terrorised the set with his obnoxious method acting. Still, Wilson thinks he’s up to the challenge and, according to an interview with People, the madman is too.
“I would love to work with Owen,” he said, “I have admired him since he came on in Bottle Rocket“, claiming that the actor was unlike anybody else, but did draw comparisons to a young Dennis Hopper. He even had an anecdote that confirmed this, recalling, “I was standing across the room with Jack Nicholson, and we were both observing Owen. I asked Jack, ‘Don’t you think he resembles Dennis Hopper both physically and energetically?’ Jack said, ‘Him?’ I said, ‘Yeah’. And we both watched Owen a bit longer and then had some lemon tart.” Great story, Nic, great story.
Despite both parties being interested, we’re still waiting on that Wilson/Cage team-up. Surely there has to be a director or a producer out there brave enough to let these two make magic together, and to all prospectives out there we say, don’t let a golden opportunity like this go begging.
