21st Century Fox

"I like how we’re sitting right now. See the way we’re both curled up? We’ve got a mirror thing going on. It’s a good sign, I think."

Jason Schwartzman is right. It is a good sign. It’s been seven years since the young star last wandered onto Hot Press’ beat and in the intervening years, the blandishments of Hollywood have failed to leave any traces of pretension.
“Is it rude if I have coffee during the interview?” he asks. “I can get you one, but if you think it will get in the way of us talking, I can wait until later for coffee.”
He still talks in amusing, offbeat quips. He still smiles all the time. He still gets excited if he happens on a word that tickles his fancy.
“Swathes,” he cries. “That’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? Almost like onomatopoeia. But not really.”
This lively mind has, of course, been keeping busy. Since his departure from the band Phantom Planet, he has taken on movie scores (Funny People) and popped up on old flame Zooey Deschanel’s She & Him album. His solo efforts as Coconut Rock are achingly hip and studded with celebrity cameos from the likes of Kirsten Dunst and Incubus.
When he isn’t making noise, Mr. Schwartzman can usually be found in the family business. His late father, Jack, was the producer behind Never Say Never Again. Mom is Talia Shire, star of The Godfather and countless Rocky films. His cousins include Nicolas Cage and Sofia Coppola. Oh, and then there’s Uncle Francis. Was there any chance young Jason could have escaped from the ‘biz’?
“I didn’t have any interest until pretty late on,” he says. “I remember sitting in a room waiting to audition for Rushmore and I was so, so nervous. I was surrounded by all these kid actors. I wasn’t a kid actor. I wasn’t any kind of actor. I just loved that script. I remember thinking these guys are going to slaughter me in there.”
Don’t family connections count for anything these days?
“God, no,” he laughs. “Connections don’t count for much in Hollywood. Not for actors at any rate. Actors can’t just call people up. The people who decide things in Hollywood are weird money people that nobody ever sees. My uncle has trouble getting movies made. What hope would I have? And I’m not the kind of guy who hangs out with producers. I like to keep to myself. I love acting but I don’t like the business.”
When he isn’t collaborating with members from his close knit Italian-Jewish family - he was King Louis XVI in Sofia’s Marie Antoinette, Roman Coppola designs his album covers – Mr. Schwartzman can be found on the fringes of other prominent Hollywood gangs. Judd Apatow is a fan, and has cast him in Funny People and Walk Hard. He is, more notably, a Wes Anderson player, having appeared in Rushmore, Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited, which he co-wrote with the director.
We know that the Wes Anderson players, folks like Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Mr. Schwartzman, are a cool bunch, but I wonder what is the underlying sensibility that keeps them together?
“That’s a question,” laughs the 29 year-old. “There’s something there alright that’s hard to put your finger on. Like that audition for Rushmore I was telling you about, once I walked in the room, the second I saw Wes I just felt such a sense of relief. All that tension – or most of it anyway – just disappeared. There was something about seeing him and talking to him that made me realise this is someone who is going to be important to me. I don’t mean career wise. I just knew this guy was going to be in my life. I’ve never really been able to figure it out, why he made me feel that way. But I think it had something to do with his shoes.”
His what now?
“His shoes. He had these really unique Converse on. I had these Bans on that were really weird looking. So we both started talking about shoes. The shoes were like a doorway that led into this wild trip we’ve been on together ever since.”
The latest detour on their wild trip is Fantastic Mr. Fox, a gorgeously old-school stop motion animation epic, featuring Mr. Schwartzman, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Jarvis Cocker, and Michael Gambon, plus Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody.
“It’s based on the Roald Dahl book,” says Jason. “But it’s completely a Wes Anderson picture. He didn’t want to make an animation where everybody does their vocals in a studio and they never actually meet. So he brought us all out to a farm and we hung out and recorded there.”
Has a shorthand developed between the usual cohorts, I wonder?
“Oh yeah,” says the actor. “I mean, with Wes and me, everything we do is an extension of our friendship. We’ve known each other now for so long, we’ve been working together 12 or 13 years now. We have a lot in common. We watch a lot of the same things, but we complement each other too. When we’re not together, he reads more than I do but I listen to a lot more music, so we exchange stuff. We have, as you say, this shared sensibility so if one of us digs something, you can be pretty sure the other one will dig it too. And when I’m working with Wes, the writing and humour is all there on the page. Hey, what’s a food that just tastes good and you don’t really have to prepare?”
Erm, avocado?
“Yeah. Like avocado. It’s like people turning around and saying ‘Wow, this avocado is so good. You’re a great cook.’ when really I haven’t done anything at all. Wes’ writing is like that. Like an avocado. It tastes good anyway. You just need to stay out of the way.”
So that explains all that Zen minimalism in The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic, or indeed, in Fantastic Mr. Fox?
“Yeah, it’s funny for me. Because there’s a lot of Italians in my family and they are not minimalists I can tell you. I’ve just done this movie called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World with Michael Cera, who I think is so amazing and so subtle. So for that sort of part I have to channel my Italian side.”
A down-to-earth fellow, he’s not one for Celebrity Squares. When he married Brady Cunningham, his eco-friendly clothes designer girlfriend earlier this year, the quiet ceremony took place in their San Fernando home. Would it matter if it all disappeared tomorrow?
“Well, I am like a complete contradiction of super aggressive and completely casual. I follow good writing or good people I want to work with. And I’m aggressive about pursuing those people. But I would never think, oh I got to go to that party and work the room. I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter that I’m not famous. Were you at the press conference earlier? I’m sitting between George Clooney and Bill Murray. Those guys are famous. I’m just the guy sitting between the celebrities. I always feel like a bit of an outsider. But I love movies so much. When I’m working with George Clooney it’s like an out of body experience.”
But surely he’s well used to hanging out with the great and good of the movieverse?
“Growing up I honestly never noticed,” he says. “Sometimes people would shout ‘Adrien’ at my mom but I never really put it together. I saw her movies but didn’t notice her in them. She’s a slip of a girl in The Godfather. I watch that movie and I see an actress. It was only watching the later Rocky films, I’d think, ‘Holy shit, mom’s in a movie!’ It’s just as well. What kind of person would I be if I couldn’t watch The Godfather without getting distracted by my mom.”