Born into Hollywood acting royalty (his uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, his cousins include Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Cage), Schwartzman began his acting career at the age of 17 in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Since then he has been a regular collaborator with Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel) as well as appearing in Marie Antoinette and Saving Mr Banks. His role in Shopgirl (2005) earned him a best supporting actor nomination at the Satellite awards. He has ventured into music, too, forming the band Phantom Planet when he was 14. Most famously, the group provided the theme song to the TV series The OC in 2002. Schwartzman has also acted in small-screen ventures including Freaks and Geeks, Parks and Recreation and Bored to Death, in which he starred opposite Zach Galifianakis. In 2009 he married fashion designer Brady Cunningham and the couple have two daughters. His latest film, the partner-swap comedy, The Overnight, is in cinemas now.
1 | Album
FFS
What’s so admirable about a band like Sparks is that they have managed to keep their world private but also stay interesting to the fans. I’m a big Sparks fan and I saw them play the whole of Kimono My House live in LA with an orchestra. I think that what Sparks and Franz Ferdinand are doing with FFS is great. I’m interested in the idea of two bands making one record. You hear about people duetting on each other’s albums, but I love the idea of taking two bands and collaborating on one thing. Two bands, two singers... I’m curious to know how they broke down the songwriting. That’s pretty amazing. What’s also interesting is that they complement each other – no one person forfeited their individuality or sacrificed anything. Instead, they created a whole new band.
2 | Film
Portrait of Jason
It’s a great documentary from the late 60s. I saw it in a movie theatre in New York a couple of years ago and then I bought it on Blu-ray. It’s a character study of this man, Jason Holliday, who performs his life story in front of the camera. It’s a very simple idea, the room never changes as he’s interviewed all the time on camera. He’s a real storyteller and speaks in this fascinating way. He’s compelling to watch. He’s drinking and we see different sides to him as he gets more intoxicated. That adds another layer to the whole thing. It’s heartbreaking and very beautiful.
3 | Book
Words Without Music by Philip Glass
I’m really interested in the intersection of discipline and music. I get dorky about time management. I’m terrible at it. I think I read books and watch documentaries about creative people to find out how people get so much done when we share the same 24 hours. I’m interested in the way people break down their days. Glass is a great musician but I like his output, he’s always working. Clearly he’s a disciplined person. As well as the book, there’s a documentary called Glass - A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. It follows his songwriting process from the start to the finishing point.
4 | Art
Matt Connors
There’s a bookstore in New York called Mast Books. It’s incredible. If you’re ever in New York you have to go – the store is piled high with books. They have lots of beautiful used books but also newer art books and I saw this one in the centre of the room that really stood out. It was of Matt Connors’s work. The people in the store told me he worked really close by and that he had just dropped off some copies. He’s a New York artist who lives in LA now. He is a painter who uses colour and shape in an interesting way. His style is really appealing to me; I just fell in love with the book.
5 | TV
MasterChef Junior
I’m watching MasterChef Junior [US] with my daughter who’s four. We watch it at night together and there have been four series of the sons of a bitch! It’s amazing to watch these chefs, between eight and 13 years old, pulling off this food that the adult MasterChefs can’t produce. It’s exciting to think about food and young people. It’s like sportsmen and women, they start younger and younger. The training is more specific and they can go professional from a younger age. It seems as if there’s a generation of kids who have grown up with more awareness of food trends. As for myself, I have very simple tastes in food. I could put some salt on a piece of cardboard and be happy.
6 | Comedy
Burning Love
I really enjoyed The Bachelor and The Bachelorette [reality TV dating gameshows], so I’m really liking [spoof drama] Burning Love. I get my parody kicks watching that. I tend to like parody-type comedy when it’s not too mean-spirited, like on Saturday Night Live. I really love impersonations, especially Bill Hader’s. I love it when comics do impressions of other actors auditioning for movies. They did a great one on Back to the Future. I love that stuff. I don’t like parody when it’s making fun of someone’s personal characteristics, like their face or haircut. Obviously we can all be mean-spirited, but I like comedy when it’s a bit... nicer.
