Owen Wilson’s five favourite Owen Wilson movies
He might be best known in some circles for voicing a talking car and saying “Wow” a lot, but it’s important to remember that Owen Wilson has been in some truly phenomenal films.
He starred in several popular comedies that would define the 2000s, from Meet the Parents to Zoolander, but he isn’t adverse to the odd drama either, where one only needs to glance at Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice or his turn in Armageddon. He’s also the star of heartfelt family comedies, but Marley and Me is probably making you tear up just reading its name.
That’s a lot of great movies, and everyone has their favourite Wilson outing, but what about the man himself? Speaking with Unilad, the star looked back across his career and picked out five favourites, beginning with his very first big screen appearance.
“I’d have to start with Bottle Rocket,” Wilson said, “That was the first movie that I ever worked on, and that was, you know, with my brothers and Wes directing”. Both Owen and Luke Wilson had originally starred in Wes Anderson’s 1992 short film, also called Bottle Rocket. When Oscar-winning director James L Brooks saw the short, he agreed to finance a full-length version. Anderson rehired both Wilsons (along with their older brother Andrew), and the movie set in motion all three of their impressive careers.
It also spanned a long-standing partnership, where Owen Wilson has appeared in seven of Anderson’s feature films, the joint-second most of any actor. Unsurprisingly, another of their collaborations, The Darjeeling Limited, co-starring Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers travelling across India, also made the list. The blonde-haired star said he loved visiting the country and enjoyed working on a film with such strong themes of siblinghood, also describing it as his favourite Wes Anderson movie in other interviews.
The lanky, well-dressed symmetry obsessive is also joined by Woody Allen as Wilson spoke fondly of working on his film Midnight in Paris, where he plays an American writer who, while on a visit to the French capital, finds himself transported back in time every night. This brings him into contact with several major figures from the 1920s, ranging from Tom Hiddleston’s F Scott Fitzgerald to his old friend Adrien Brody’s interpretation of Salvador Dalí with his pencil moustache. You can see why Wilson would be so keen to promote the film, as it earned him a Golden Globe nomination, but should probably be wary of praising Allen too much in public; that guy gives off bad vibes to say the least.
For his final choices, Wilson opted for two of his more commercial efforts, with Wedding Crashers, which saw him and fellow ‘Frat Pack’ member Vince Vaughn play two commitment-phobic men trying to get laid by professionally crashing weddings, and western Shanghai Noon, the first picture to pair him with Jackie Chan. Both of these movies were released in the first half of the 2000s and helped establish Wilson as a credible star in comedy. You can see why he’s so fond of them.
From romcoms to heist movies to grand voyages across a subcontinent, these films sum up just how varied and successful Wilson’s remarkable career has been.
Five of Owen Wilson’s own favourite films:
- Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996)
- The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007)
- Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)
- Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin, 2005)
- Shanghai Noon (Tom Dey, 2000)
