A ‘Real’ Charmer

The Independent interviews quirky American film director Wes Anderson and finds his quirk and charm to be put on as by an actor in one of his films. “Wes Anderson wants us to think he’s weird. He would probably be very happy to find himself staring out of the page under a dictionary definition of ‘weird’. His life and career are all about his own studied brand of peculiarity, and he’s not about to change that now.

Which is why, while the IoS interviews him, he is eating. Well, he is doing Wes Anderson’s performance of eating. Spinach soup; a separate plate of spinach; a plate of bread and a bowl of baby potatoes are brought at his request. He takes one arch forkful of each, chewing each morsel in slow motion, before pushing his tray aside and announcing he’s ‘quite full’. It is an odd vignette in the series of strange moments that comprise an encounter with one of Hollywood’s oddest auteurs. He enters the room, swamped in a furry-hooded green parker, shuffling along with his eyes locked on the floor. ‘Oh hello, I’m Wes,’ he says softly, one of America’s most celebrated film directors playing the role of a shy schoolboy.”