Horizon: An American Saga star Luke Wilson takes us through some of the most iconic moments of his long career. He explains what it's like to be directed by Kevin Costner on a Western and working with a horse. He also talks about the friendship he has with Wes Anderson and working with him on Royal Tenenbaums. Plus we hear some stories from some of his other iconic movies like Old School, Legally Blonde, Anchorman, and Bottle Rocket.
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00:00There is a disappointed Luke Wilson meme. Do you agree with its message?
00:04Looks like a couple late nights here and there. That might be part of the problem.
00:08I don't think I was disappointed. I was probably just trying to get the evening started,
00:13but I wasn't aware that there were some disappointed Luke Wilson memes.
00:18I need to fill that up with some joyous, peppy Luke Wilson memes.
00:23Hi there, I'm Luke Wilson, and today Esquire has asked me to explain a few things,
00:29so let's get started.
00:36Could you ride a horse before taking on your role in Horizon? Any on-set horse stories?
00:43I could ride a horse. I had a great horse, Charm, who I loved. I did have a thing with
00:48one of the Wranglers where I said, so you think Charm knows who I am now? And he said,
00:55you mean, does he, like, know you're famous? I said, no, that's not what I'm saying.
01:00I'm just saying, does he recognize me as a person? And even that sounded bad. And I said,
01:05please don't say to the guys that, yeah, Luke wants to know if Charm knows that he's a celebrity.
01:11That was a funny thing that happened between me and Charm.
01:14What's Kevin Costner's greatest strength as a director? Well, I think maybe that one of
01:19the obvious things is that he's a great actor, and he's, you know, he's very sensitive to actors
01:27and kind of what they might be thinking about on set. There was even one day where he'd said,
01:31you know, you're giving the speech tomorrow, and I think maybe it's better if you don't have your
01:36guns on you because it's early in the morning. And I thought, okay, that sounds good. The next
01:40day he rolls around, I said, Kevin, you know, I think that maybe I should have my guns on.
01:44He just kind of looked at me, he's like, I had you looking cool in a lot of the movie.
01:48And then he just pushed me to the side and pushed me out of the way and talked to the next guy.
01:53Bottle Rocket in 1996 was your acting debut. How did you get cast? Well,
01:59that's an interesting story. My brother, Owen Wilson, met Wes Anderson at the University of
02:06Texas in Austin in an English class. Wes was from Houston, we're from Dallas. They didn't
02:10know each other. I think supposedly they didn't like each other when they first met. There was
02:14something about the other guy that threw the other guy off. I can't remember what it was
02:18specifically, but they eventually moved into an apartment together. But Wes wanted to be a
02:24director and they both were very interested in writing. And so they wrote a script of Bottle
02:29Rocket and I was around and I got cast as Anthony through familial connections, I guess.
02:36Besides you, who was your favorite character in the Royal Tenenbaums and why? Eli Cash,
02:42Owen's character was really funny. He has that great scene where it's kind of a Charlie Rose
02:46type interview and he's on mescaline or something. Loved Raleigh St. Clair, Bill Murray's character,
02:53and Gwyneth's kind of iconic character of Margot Tenenbaum. She was so great in that. Of course,
02:59Ben Stiller was so funny. And then with his two sons, Ari and Uzi, and Danny Clover was great.
03:06For me, it was kind of one of the high points of my life and my career was getting the chance to
03:12work with Gene Hackman. He's someone known for his intensity, but he is a really funny character
03:19as Royal. Just remember him saying to Angelica Huston, I'm dying, baby. And he wasn't dying,
03:25but yeah, Gene's an incredible guy and he's still out there, which is great.
03:29Do you ever see people dressed as your character for Halloween?
03:33Are you shocked at its ongoing seasonal popularity? Yeah, I've definitely seen those
03:39photos over the years and it's really, really funny. In fact, here in New York,
03:44out at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, there's a plaque up for Richie Tenenbaum and it says
03:49something like, here on these hallowed grounds, Richie Tenenbaum played his last tennis match.
03:54I feel very lucky to have played a character that people get a kick out of like that.
04:00How much is too much to pay for a pair of socks? I wouldn't go over 20 and that's a lot.
04:06My brothers spend a lot of time in Hawaii, out in Maui, and I haven't spent as much time out
04:11there. And Owen really likes to amuse himself with my brother Andrew and other friends that
04:17live in Hawaii. Like, why doesn't Luke come out here more? What is it about Luke? Why doesn't
04:23he like Maui? And one of their theories is that I love socks and slacks so much that it just
04:31doesn't fit with Maui. So yeah, I'm known for my love of socks. You and your brothers collaborate
04:38as artists often. What was your dynamic like as kids? There are three years between each one of
04:43us. My brother Andrew's three years older than Owen and Owen's three years older than me. So
04:50somehow with that age difference, it kind of worked out perfectly where we all got along
04:55really well. And their friends were always really nice guys that were always really nice to me. I
05:00mean, Andrew does say that he thought I was a neighborhood kid that was just helping out at
05:05the house till the mid 80s. He didn't realize that I was actually his brother. He just thought I was
05:09kind of a nice kid in the neighborhood that would do chores for my parents. Explain how you created
05:15your character Mitch in old school. Well, I mean, I think it goes down to Todd Phillips and Scott
05:22Armstrong's really good script. You know, Mitch was not somebody that I really disappeared into
05:27Gary Oldman style. It was more just kind of a fun character to play. And you know, for me,
05:33to get the chance to work with Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn every day was unbelievable fun. I
05:38mean, Vince is so quick and funny. And then everyone knows that, you know, Will Ferrell's
05:44easily the funniest guy I've ever worked with. It's just one of those lucky movies where everything
05:50seemed to kind of come together at the same time. I mean, being here in New York, it always reminds
05:55me of being on the press tour. Vince Vaughn and I went to the AMC kind of down in Chelsea,
06:02and people were in line for this film Daredevil, I think it was. And we would buy them tickets if
06:09they would go switch lines and go to old school. And I think we came in second that weekend at the
06:16box office. A few months later, I went on a press tour of old school with Will Ferrell in Europe,
06:21where it just bombed. And I was saying to Will, I was like, this is great. We've had the best of
06:28both worlds. We've had this hit. And then we've had a total flop. If you had to, how would you
06:34describe the essence of Will Ferrell? You know, any fan of Saturday Night Live or the movies
06:41can probably get the essence of Will Ferrell is that there's a real sweetness there. And then
06:46there's kind of this crazy aspect where, you know, I've had it where I've looked into his eyes
06:51during a scene and it's like you're seeing, you know, there are these kind of twinkly blue eyes,
06:57but you see he's got like the pedal down. Did anyone break character while filming the Anchorman
07:02street fight? Who took it the most seriously? I can't remember that much about filming it besides,
07:09you know, seeing all these different characters like Vince was there. I hadn't seen him since old
07:14school. You know, Ben Stiller was there from Telemundo and Tim Robbins was from public
07:20television. So all that stuff, I think we all took it pretty seriously, but Ben Stiller is the
07:26Telemundo anchor. He, Ben seemed to be taking it pretty seriously and he really delivered the goods.
07:34What advice did Reese give you prior to filming Legally Blonde? Reese didn't really give me any
07:40advice prior to filming Legally Blonde. You know, I was a big fan of hers from Election and that's
07:46why I wanted to do the movie. But, you know, I just thought it was kind of a straightforward movie,
07:51kind of aimed at younger women. But then when I saw Reese come out decked out as Elle Woods and
07:57talking in, you know, this kind of really funny way playing a real character, you know, it made
08:03me kind of think to take the movie a lot more seriously than I might've been. Did you ever see
08:09real-life parallels to Idiocracy in the times we're living in? Yeah, I definitely remember in
08:15the last administration there was someone in the cabinet that really was from Carl's Jr. and I
08:22thought, okay, that is incredible. Welcome to Carl's Jr. Would you like to try our extra big ass taco?
08:29I'm always trying to get Mike to do another Idiocracy where me and Terry Crews and Dax
08:35Shepard, who played Frida, where we come back from the future to the present day and, you know,
08:43see what happens. Hi, this is Luke Wilson and that was a little bit about my career for Esquire.
08:50And as you get older, as I've gotten older, I've felt very lucky to have certain movies that have
08:56connected with audiences. You know, whether it's Idiocracy or Old School with the Royal Tenenbaums,
09:02you know, you're lucky to get one of those and I hope that Horizon becomes one of those.
09:08That's the reason I'm here today.