Owen Wilson Talks Shop, Nothing Else

If nothing else, MySpace's "exclusive" Owen Wilson-Wes Anderson interview shed a little light on what it might be like to be a fly on the wall in the quirky duo's writing room.

The longtime pals and frequent collaborators' five-minute chat, posted Friday on the social networking site as part of its ongoing Artist on Artist feature, turned out to be nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek promo for their latest film, The Darjeeling Limited, which opened in wide release today.

Meaning, it was not the Diane Sawyer-style, revelatory, emotional interview that was suggested when outlets such as USA Today and People and Us Weekly's Websites reported that Wilson was finally opening up (meaning, on camera) for the first time since his suicide attempt in August.

Of course, no one affirmatively stated that Wilson was going to talk about the incident, or even his feelings in general, and it's unclear how the MySpace braintrust spun the big get.

But he and Anderson weren't even in the same room! Wilson was in Culver City, Calif., and the filmmaker was in New York. Anderson even marveled at one point over the technology—"the same they used in Transformers," he mused—that brought them together.

The two more or less interviewed each other, with Wilson kicking things off by asking Anderson why he chose India for The Darjeeling Limited, in which Wilson, Jason Schwartzman (who cowrote the screenplay) and Adrien Brody play brothers riding a train cross-country to visit their estranged mother, played by Anderson regular Anjelica Huston, who became a nun after their father's death.

"I wanted to learn about it, that was really my main thing," Anderson said. "But when I went, then I felt like I wanted to share it with our group of collaborators."

Wilson has appeared in all of Anderson's films, including an uncredited cameo in Rushmore, which he cowrote.

The 38-year-old actor, whose deadpan, assured-yet-wide-eyed delivery that he's had going for him in everything from Zoolander to Wedding Crashers seems to mirror his actual persona, also cowrote Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tennenbaums with Anderson, who has had a hand in all of the scripts he's directed.

The usual suspects in an Anderson production include, give or take a film, Owen and Luke Wilson, Schwartzman, Huston, Bill Murray and Indian actor Kumar Pallana, who has been in all of Anderson's films except The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

On a more personal note, Wilson said that The Darjeeling Limited may be his favorite of all of their films, and of course Anderson asks why that is.

"Because…I just like the themes it's exploring," Wilson explained, "in the way my character says, 'I want us to become brothers again, like we used to be.' I really like that line and it means a lot to me. There's a lot of stuff like that in this movie that has that feeling. There's stuff that feels exhilarating."

"This to me feels like the most personal one for all of us, like the most overtly personal," Anderson agreed.

Wilson's character, Francis Whitman, spends the whole of The Darjeeling Limited with his head wrapped in bandages as the result of a car crash that might not have entirely been an accident. Just as photo stills featuring a banged-up Wilson started making the rounds in August, he was hospitalized after what authorities said was a suicide attempt.

"I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time," Wilson said at the time in a statement released by his publicist. Buddies such as Anderson and Ben Stiller gave the media some positive updates on his condition a few weeks later.

As far as his appearance Friday, the bearded blonde looked as healthy, relaxed and charmingly disheveled as ever, but the comments about the personal nature of the film were as deep as anyone delved.

"Where are you going next?" Wilson inquired of his friend. "You've been to Texas, to Texas, to New York, to Rome, to India."

"I was kinda thinking it might be nice to do something in space," Anderson said.

To which Wilson replied, "Why not?"

No major revelations, but vintage Owen Wilson.

Via eonline