Warning: Mild spoilers for Asteroid City are in play. If you haven’t seen the film just yet, you’ve been warned.
The world of Wes Anderson movies feels like a dollhouse, in that it’s an elaborate and meticulously curated experience that we’re invited to experience each time he releases a new film. Asteroid City is yet another example of such a phenomenon. However, what makes this film all the more interesting is that Anderson was relatively hands-off when it came to one particular piece of the puzzle -- a dance number. So, while speaking with actors Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend about their roles in the film, they broke down their unusual dance in the film, and how they collaborated with the director to make it.
This knowledge was shared with me during the press day for Wes Anderson’s latest, as I was able to sit down with both Hawke and Friend for one of the day’s interviews. Their recollection of pulling together the moment where a school teacher (Maya Hawke) and a cowboy (Rupert Friend) dance to the tune of a song praising the UFO that’s visited Asteroid City’s central local painted a picture that’s both unexpected, but very apropos of the auteur filmmaker’s fictional worlds.
As these co-stars spoke with CinemaBlend, Maya Hawke's portion of the conversation highlighted just how unusual this scene was to craft. Here's what she had to say:
In the script it just said, ‘And then they dance.’ We got to that day, and I think both of us were going to Wes most days before that day being like, ‘When are we gonna rehearse the dance? We’re gonna rehearse it this weekend, right?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah, we’ll rehearse it. ’ We did not ... We were like, 'Aaah…ok,’ and then we just did it a couple of times and he was like, ‘That’s great! We got it!’ So much is so choreographed and designed, and this was this moment of real freedom and exuberance and joy.
“Dear Alien” is one of two original songs in Asteroid City, thanks to the collaboration of Richard Hawley and Jarvis Cocker, along with Wes Anderson joining in for that song in particular. In that respect, one could assume that his familiarity with the material was what guided his thought process when putting together Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend’s rather impromptu hoedown on set.
Even with that in mind, this is the same director that is known to provide his cast with full animatics of the project they’re about to embark on. That process was still very much present when making this film, so one has to wonder what the rough version of the sequence where “they dance” looked like in comparison. It's a question that feels like a deeper rabbit hole than it seems, especially when looking at how Asteroid City's trailer sells the whole package in a mysterious, but still laugh-out-loud manner.
Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend’s big song and dance number in Asteroid City may be unusual, but for this slice of Andersonia in particular, that seems to be par for the course. At the same time, that sort of comedic energy mixed with a dramatic sweetness is used to dissect our modern times in a fantastical view of the past. Or that seems to be the aim when you take into account the reactions Asteroid City’s cast had to its rather cryptic message.
Depending on who you talk to, Asteroid City is about finding meaning in the presence of “interesting times.” Though a random musical number praising extraterrestrial life may seem out of place to some in those circumstances, Maya Hawke may have summed up just why this scene works so well: "freedom and exuberance and joy."
And when Rupert Friend discussed with CinemaBlend the process of creating "Dear Alien," he tied the finished product to the much deeper story at hand. Friend's story reads as follows:
The song underwent lots and lots of development. A wonderful producer from England called Richard Hawley flew out, and we worked on it as a band. We would rehearse it at night. To me, both the song and a number of the scenes that we have to do with the alien, are about the notion of otherness, and why it’s not a scary thing. Typically, someone who’s different than you probably has something to teach you, rather than something to be feared.
You can experience this lovely little moment for yourself in theaters, as Asteroid City is currently showing in all of its cinematic glory. And don't forget to come back and read up on what that rather cryptic ending could mean; as you're definitely going to have some questions walking out of the theater. Also, there are still plenty of 2023 new movie releases waiting down the line including some more Maya Hawke movie and TV roles.
