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.
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