Owen Wilson discusses his favourite movie: “I loved it so much that I knew every line”
He might be famous for his near-constant use of the word “wow” and the many comical moments he has delivered over the years, but Owen Wilson is much more than this one-dimensional character. A brilliant actor adept at comedy and drama, Wilson’s career is smattered with moments of genius that confirm why he is so widely loved. Whether it be Zoolander, The Darjeeling Limited or Inherent Vice, you don’t have to look far to understand why the actor is such a cultural institution.
Breaking through due to his association with filmmaker Wes Anderson, with whom he shared writing and acting credits for 1996’s Bottle Rocket, 1998’s Rushmore, and 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, with these films, Wilson immediately exhibited that his talents are not confined to one area. He has since appeared in six of Anderson’s films. These include 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited and, most recently, The French Dispatch.
Elsewhere, Wilson has resoundingly shown that there is no limit to his dexterity. The actor has collaborated with celebrated auteurs such as Woody Allen, Peter Bogdanovich, and Paul Thomas Anderson in one of his most overlooked roles. On the other side of the coin, the American has voiced Lightning McQueen in Pixar’s Cars franchise, appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and made everyone weep in Marley and Me. Indeed, flourishes like these are only the tip of the iceberg.
There’s no surprise that Owen Wilson has been willing to take on such a colourful plethora of roles, as he’s a lifelong lover of cinema as a whole. He outlined this when listing his five favourite movies of all time for Rotten Tomatoes in 2022. A compelling glimpse into the mind of one of the most distinctive actors out there, it was brimming with enlightening information about his life and craft.
One of the titles he named was Gus Van Sant’s 1989 crime drama Drugstore Cowboy. Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham and influential Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, the film is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by James Fogle. Wilson revealed that he loved Drugstore Cowboy so much that he “knew every line”.
Wilson said: “Drugstore Cowboy. That’s another movie that I saw on consecutive days. I remember I saw that in Boston, and I just loved the movie and Gus Van Sant. And then I remember working later with Matt Dillon on You, Me and Dupree and telling him how much I loved the movie and loved it so much that I knew every line from the movie. And Matt was kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ And then I go, ‘Here, say a line from the movie, and I’ll be able to say the next line.’ I don’t think he really wanted to do it. I was just, ‘No, really, just say a line. Any line.’ And he said a line, and then I didn’t know the next line.”
Continuing: “But there was also a line that he says in that, that I remember Wes and I would always say. I don’t know if I ever used it in another movie, but ‘We played a game you could never win, and we played it to the utmost.’ I always loved that line from Drugstore Cowboy. And I also love the scene with… Well, I don’t know. I just love the whole look of the movie and the jacket that Matt Dillon was wearing. I thought was really cool.”
Watch the trailer for Drugstore Cowboy below.
