Jason Schwartzman: ‘I was the kid driving around all the record stores buying all the Oasis singles’

Does Wes Anderson still make you audition? TopTrampThere have been times when he’s said: “Maybe you should try reading this part,” or: “Let me hear how it sounds if you read it,” and then said: “I think the character should be older.” I don’t think he’s necessarily auditioning you. He’s auditioning how the part fits.
Will you ever tour or record again with Phantom Planet? levilovinmammaI’m totally open to the idea. I was asked to come on stage with the singer, Alex Greenwald, to do California. It was only when I sat down on the drum stool that I realised how nervous I was, playing this song that we hadn’t played together for 20 years. It was really fun, but I was so gassed at the end I could hardly breathe. I thought: “How did I ever play a whole show? I can’t even get to the end of one song without feeling like I want to black out.”
Did Ringo Starr give you any feedback on your performance of him in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story? HenleyRegattaI’m going to go with: no news is good news. He probably hasn’t even seen it. But, yeah, he’s my favourite drummer by a long shot.
I didn’t see a single review or comment about Asteroid City that mentioned Stanley Kubrick, but am I crazy for being convinced you drew on him for your performance? ianlarsenWes had mentioned the idea: “Maybe there’s a voice you could do that would be slightly different?” We ended up looking at all these interviews with Kubrick and figured out it wasn’t only the accent, but a stillness on his face when he spoke. We worked on ways to speak without moving my face muscles, but I couldn’t figure it out. We even thought: “Is there a safe way for me to have numbing injections in my face?”
I came downstairs from my office and my wife had a cleansing face mask on. I made some joke and she went: “Ha ha.” I thought: “That was kind of sarcastic.” I made another and it was the same sarcastic “ha ha”. Then I realised she was saying: “I can’t move my face because I’ve got this face mask on.” I got a load of her facial clay, put way too much on my face, called Wes and went: “Maybe there’s something we can do like this.” Eventually, the makeup department came up with little moulds for my teeth that locked my jaw shut so I had to learn how to talk in a totally different way. It became essential to the whole part.
You popped up in Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers. Which other musical artists deserve a similarly sparkling documentary – and are you the man to make it? McScootikinsI’m a big fan of rock docs. I like Heartworn Highways, about the founders of the outlaw country movement in Texas and Tennessee in the mid-70s. But I equally like Supersonic, the Oasis documentary. I saw them live a few times. The first was at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas festival in 1995 when Oasis were touring Morning Glory on the same bill as Radiohead doing The Bends. I saw them when Travis opened for them on the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants tour. I was the kid driving around all the record stores buying all the Blur and Oasis singles just so I could hear the B-sides like Rockin’ Chair. I loved Supergrass, too. I Should Coco and In It for the Money blew my mind.
I don’t think I’d want to play Thom Yorke. I’d like to see someone try, but I’d like it just to be a movie of his daily routine, like making his dinner. Did you see those Blur things put out on YouTube – not their most recent album, The Ballad of Darren, but the one before, The Magic Whip? Just them in the studio, walking around. I’d love to see a documentary like that for Beck making a new record.
If you ever needed some existential detectives, as in I Heart Huckabees, to solve a universal interconnectivity coincidence in your life, what would it be? BigThunderRumbleFishI don’t know if my house is bugged, but my mother seems on such the same wavelength as me, it’s eerie. I’ll talk about wanting to get into something and two days later a package will show up of exactly that thing. It’s nuts. I said to my wife: “I’d love to start making miniatures of things.” Two days later, a bag of miniature bricks showed up from my mom with cement grout and everything. I said to my wife: “I really want to read more about Leonardo da Vinci.” Two days later, a giant Leonardo book showed up at my house.
I watched this thing about planting things around your house. I said to my wife: “Sugar cane grows pretty well; you can cut it and make things out of it.” Next day, guess what arrives? I was working last year in Atlanta and I said to my wife on the phone: “I wish I had some art supplies to mess around with while I’m here.” As I was on the phone, there was a knock at my door and it was a box from my mom full of pencils and paintbrushes. I don’t know if my mother is listening to me or what. I doubt it, because she can hardly work her phone. It’s bizarre. I’d like an existential detective to help me figure out how my mom is buying all these things just a day after I say I’m interested in them.
What would you have asked the alien à la Asteroid City? What’s the secret of the universe you’d like to know? alaspoorlolaI’d ask if there were music on other planets. I’d ask: “Are there others? Is it just Earth or are there multiple places you visit?” I’d be curious: “Have you ever accidentally flown into a black hole?” “Have long you been coming here?” “Is the universe really that big?” Maybe I’d ask something silly: “What do you eat on a long light-year journey? How do you pack for that, snack-wise?” What I’d really like to know is: “Is it you helping my mother pre-empt everything about me?”
Actually, that thing with my mother isn’t the eeriest thing that’s happened. I was in England in 2004, 2005, in this cab, asking all these Britpop questions to the driver. I’m such a Britpop geek; I love it. He said: “You know that was the 90s. It’s not really like that any more.” I said: “I guess I’m sort of living in the past.” He said: “It’s not like you’re going to see Noel Gallagher getting into the back of a car with a guitar.” As I got out in that street with all the guitar shops [Denmark Street in central London], Noel Gallagher was across the street with a guitar case in his hand, getting into the back of the car. I felt like I was in a scene from a movie.