In the 1998 high-school classic Rushmore, Jason Schwartzman played the unforgettable Max Fischer, king of extra-curricular activities and victim to an unrequited passion for teacher Olivia Williams. In the gross-out comedy Slackers, Schwartzman plays the equally memorable - if rather less charming - Ethan, a creepy college nerd in love with the unattainable James King. A cousin of Nic Cage's and a nephew of Francis Coppola's, Schwartzman spends his time away from the camera playing drums for the band Phantom Planet. And unlike his screen characters, he's got a girlfriend.
Starring in films, playing in bands... Which comes first?
It's like having two siblings: you wouldn't want to choose one over the other. But I've been playing with Phantom Planet since we were all 14, and even when I've been making movies we were still practising four days a week. We've been touring for the last nine months, and to tour in a band has always been my dream, whereas I only auditioned for Rushmore because I thought it would make a cool story to tell my friends.
Does being an actor have an effect on being in the band?
Only on a personal level. I always wanted to be a musician and worked really hard at it, then all of a sudden I did this film and it came out first. So then people thought I was like Keanu Reeves and Russell Crowe, doing this side project as a little hobby, which was really frustrating.
Rushmore's Max Fischer was another man who kept himself busy. Is that where the similarities end?
Like Max I feel like shit if I find myself sitting around doing nothing, but I'm a lot more relaxed than him. There's a fine line between doing things because you're trying to run towards something, and doing things because you're trying to run away from something.
You came to star in Rushmore with no experience of screen acting. Was it overwhelming?
Because there were so many things that were scary and new about doing the film, they all kind of cancelled each other out and I just focused on my schoolwork. Two weeks after auditioning for the film we started shooting, and I didn't have time to think about the fact that I was starring alongside a fucking Ghostbuster (Bill Murray) because I had to finish my Hamlet paper.
Is it true that Olivia Williams gave you extra-curricular English lessons in your trailer during the filming of Rushmore?
Yeah. I got an F.
You seem to be specialising in these outsider roles...
People have said that both Max and Ethan are geeks, but I don't see it like that. Max is an inspiring leader who people want to be like, while Ethan is a horrible geek. But both have tons of energy and don't know how to focus it, so they pick a completely unattainable girl and obsess over her. Both are outsiders, but Max chooses to turn that into something positive, while Ethan has turned bitter - he's been picked on so much that he's mean to everyone before they're mean to him.
Poor Ethan. He's not that bad.
When we were making Slackers, I assumed that everyone who liked Rushmore would hate Ethan, but they all loved him. There seems to be this weird niche of society who relate to these freaks.
