Short of the Week: Wes Anderson’s version of ‘The Truman Show’
Since his debut feature Bottle Rocket, it was evident that Wes Anderson was ready to change the game with his refreshingly original artistic sensibilities. However, it wasn’t until the 1998 coming-of-age comedy Rushmore that Anderson started garnering some serious traction. Met with critical acclaim, Anderson’s sophomore effort provided a serious boost to his trajectory while also rejuvenating Bill Murray’s career.
While Murray was undoubtedly impressive in Rushmore, the star who stole the show was none other than Jason Schwartzman. Despite it being his first film, Schwartzman delivered a stellar performance as Max Fischer – a strange 15-year-old boy who is painfully out of place at an elite academic institution full of gifted children. However, he never lets his inabilities get in the way of his dreams while continuing his pursuit of an unattainable ideal.
During a conversation with Dazed, Schwartzman recalled his memorable experience: “When I read the script for Rushmore, that was the first time I really feel like I locked into a movie. I had an appointment on a Friday. I skipped school and made my own outfit to wear to the audition. I just remember meeting Wes and immediately feeling not as nervous as I was because he was younger than I thought he was gonna be. He also had these Converse sandals, and I had green New Balances with bright red reflectors, and I remember there being instant admiration for each others’ footwear – maybe that was on purpose on his part to kind of settle me.”
The actor added: “I had to get my chest and hands waxed regularly to pass as a high school student. My chest was only one time, and it was a mistake; let’s just put it that way. It was because there was a scene in the movie where I wrestled, and Wes was concerned that I looked like I was 17 playing a 15-year-old. Even at 15, I could grow a beard. They were nervous that I looked too adult, and so they waxed my chest for this wrestling scene, and it was a disaster. I mean, it was a disaster like the scene in 40 Year Old Virgin – minus my friends. Yeah, and the hands, they would just do that regularly. But, as I say, anything for the craft.”
Since then, Schwartzman has collaborated with Anderson on multiple well-known projects like Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as his latest feature Asteroid City. However, one particularly overlooked partnership between the two is the set of promotional shorts they made for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards. Filmed with the cast of Rushmore, Anderson created hilarious parodies of nominated works like The Truman Show and Armageddon.
Anderson’s version of The Truman Show is definitely the stand-out segment in the short, featuring Schwartzman as the nefarious creator who controls Truman’s manufactured existence. It’s too easy for The Grand Budapest Hotel director to transform The Truman Show’s nightmarish existential concerns into a breezy comedy setup effortlessly facilitated by the talented cast of child actors. It almost makes you think that Peter Weir’s seminal masterpiece might have been even creepier if it had been visualised through Anderson’s highly artificial aesthetic framework.
Watch the short below.
