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Owen Wilson remembers working with David Bowie on ‘Zoolander’
When Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and David Bowie both appeared in the same scene in the 2001 comedy Zoolander, the world could not believe what it was witnessing. Here were two of the contemporary era’s hottest Hollywood properties sharing the screen with one of the most influential creatives of all time. It remains one of the more surreal moments in cinema history as well as one of the most iconic.
Whilst we were in dreamland when first coming across David Bowie’s surprise appearance in Zoolander, we were brought back down to earth with the knowledge that this was David Bowie, the man who wrote the 1980 classic ‘Fashion’, and who had rubbed shoulders with only the most glamorous people around for decades.
The film, which parodied the absurdity of the fashion industry, was desperate to use the most fashionable people around to get its point across. After all, if A-listers such as Heidi Klum, Victoria Beckham, Donatella Versace, and Tom Ford were to have cameos, then it was only right that David Bowie should, too, as his style, both musically and aesthetically, precedes him.
Bowie makes his appearance when Ben Stiller’s titular supermodel and Owen Wilson’s Hansel McDonald face off against each other in the “walk-off”, with the musician playing himself and acting as the competition’s judge.
Axl asks the crowd, “Alright, who’s gonna call this sucker”, before the longhaired Bowie enters to gasps, taking his shades off and saying, “If nobody has any objections, I believe I might be of service.” What ensues is arguably the film’s greatest scene and one of the highlights of Bowie’s acting career.
Given that this scene is so legendary, it has been brought up in interviews many times with Wilson, and when sitting down with The Talks for an in-depth discussion about his career, he revealed what it was like meeting and working with David Bowie, and how he felt after hearing of his death in 2016.
Wilson said: “The David Bowie… I think Ben and I were surprised that he even agreed to do the movie! He was such a cool, lovely guy the day that we worked together. When I got the sad news of his death earlier this year, of course, I thought a lot about that day. Wes (Anderson) has used a lot of Bowie’s music in his films, too, especially in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”
Referencing the equally as majestic late frontman of Queen, Freddie Mercury, Wilson concluded: “I was listening to some of those songs, watching some of them on YouTube, and someone also played me an a cappella version of David Bowie singing with Freddie Mercury. That was incredible. Freddie Mercury’s voice is amazing. Bowie is great but in that one video, Mercury really stands out. It’s amazing how much life he puts into it.”
Watch the Zoolander “walk-off” scene below.
