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See an exclusive sneak peek at Wes Anderson’s newest enigmatic film, The Phoenician Scheme.
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Stars Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, and newcomer Mia Threapleton share their favorite memories of making the movie.
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Threapleton recalls the kind words from Benicio del Toro that helped calm her nerves on her first day on set.
Everyone is afraid to say too much about Wes Anderson’s newest film, The Phoenician Scheme.
When Entertainment Weekly tries to ask stars Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton what audiences can expect, they default to brief descriptions of their characters and favorite anecdotes of their time playing in the Anderson cinematic universe (more on that in a bit).
So we turn to leading man Benicio del Toro for clarity, who gives this explanation for the obfuscation: “Yeah, [the film is] like Magic Mountain. It’s like a roller coaster. Definitely twisty. And Wes Anderson movies are completely original, so that’s a given, but they’re unpredictable. And I think this one, it falls right into it.”
Okay, here’s what we do know: Anderson directs from a script he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola. Set in 1950, it follows enigmatic and extremely wealthy industrialist Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda (del Toro), who has just survived another attempt on his life — a sixth plane crash. (His complex and often ruthless business practices have made him an enemy of just about everyone, and therefore a frequent target of assassinations.)
Courtesy of Focus Features
Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-zsa Korda in ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
The titular Phoenician Scheme, known in the film as the Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Scheme, is in its final stages. With the ongoing threats to his life, Zsa-zsa’s career-defining work is at stake, as is his immense wealth, so he decides to name a successor — his only daughter Liesl (Threapleton), a 20-year-old nun with whom he is long estranged — which might have something to do with the unsolved murder of her mother, Zsa-zsa’s first wife.
In other words, says del Toro, “There are some obstacles that are straight out of an action movie, and it has thriller moments where you don’t know what’s going to happen. The script keeps you on your toes.” But, at its heart, it’s a father-daughter story, he says.
“His relationship with her, it’s been quite fractured. I think he hasn’t seen her for six years, and this is the first time he sees her. She doesn’t trust him,” del Toro explains. “So the whole journey, the whole emotional journey, it’s really about having Zsa-zsa subconsciously working on a second chance to redeem his relationship with his daughter because of how he’s neglected her. That is the heart of the piece.”
Ironically, Threapleton and del Toro formed the kind of bond on set that Zsa-zsa craves in the film. Though she comes from Hollywood royalty — the 24-year-old is the daughter of Kate Winslet and filmmaker Jim Threapleton — Threapleton says she didn’t grow up on film sets, and describes herself as “incredibly green and really new to this industry.”
“It felt like the best and most funnest first day of school ever. But the first day of school, nonetheless,” she tells EW. Meaning, there were nerves, particularly on the first day of principal photography, but del Toro was supportive. “Benicio had seen me in the corner and was like, ‘You okay?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it feels really surreal and feels very real suddenly. And I’m quite nervous.’ And he just sort of looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘It’s okay. We are going to do this together.’ And then we finished and he said, ‘I told you we would do it together,'” she recalls, adding, “And I won’t ever forget the fact that he said that actually.”
When we mention this story to del Toro a few weeks later, he demurs, “Well, that’s very nice. I’ve been there. She was surrounded by a lot of people who worked before, but she’s super talented, and she did a terrific job. I’m glad to hear that I helped any which way I could.”
Courtesy of Focus Features
Tom Hanks as Leland, Riz Ahmed as Prince Farouk, Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, Mia Threapleton as Liesl, and Bryan Cranston as Reagan in Wes Anderson’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
Cera, too, has a fond memory involving del Toro. In the film, Cera plays a Norwegian entomologist. As he describes it, Zsa-zsa “always keeps some kind of tutor or other close in hand because he has a voracious appetite for knowledge in all arenas of life. And at the moment, it’s insects and related subjects. So I’m brought in as his tutor, and as things escalate and as the situation evolves, I’ve become brought into the administration in a more involved way as his administrative secretary,”
The Scott Pilgrim vs. The World star says he worked closely with Anderson on the look of his character. “I really wanted to have these glasses that I wear in the movie, and I really wanted to have a strong prescription that would make my eyes very small,” he says. At one point, they went for the strongest prescription they could get, -18, but “the glass was so thick you couldn’t even close the arms of the glasses.”
Cera’s eyes were so small that even his director said, “This is too much,” the star recalls. A good balance was found in his final look, which features a -12 prescription. Laughing at the memory, Cera says he knew they’d found the right look when he first wore the glasses on set and del Toro stopped in his tracks, paused, and deadpanned, “You look like a bug,” before walking off.
Courtesy of Focus Features
Michael Cera and his thick glasses in ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
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Like a typical Anderson project, the film features an ensemble cast that also includes Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, and Scarlett Johansson; plus Richard Ayoade as a helpful freedom fighter, Benedict Cumberbatch as Zsa-zsa’s mysterious half-brother Nubar, Rupert Friend as the shadowy agent “Excalibur”, and Hope Davis as Liesl’s Mother Superior.
Large casts such as this one lend themselves to a traditional Anderson experience. “Wes sets are known for, at night, having these great dinners where actors exchange stories, and it’s a blast,” del Toro, who previously teamed with the director on The French Dispatch, explains. “I wasn’t able to enjoy as many of those as I would’ve liked to, let’s put it that way.”
While he admits that it “was a monumental, great part that any actor would jump at,” leading an Anderson film comes with great responsibility. “It’s loaded with many different layers that you have to be on your toes consistently,” he says.
Basically, the actor concludes, “It was like a long, long Halloween party. It was hardcore…. But I’m very happy with it.”
Audiences can experience The Phoenician Scheme in limited release on May 30 and in theaters everywhere on June 6.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
