‘Asteroid City’ cast dish on Wes Anderson’s new sci-fi comedy

Aliens, celebrity, grief, quarantine — just a few of the things explored in the new Wes Anderson movie Asteroid City, out this weekend in wide release, which stars huge names, including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell and Anderson staple Jason Schwartzman, who talked to ABC Audio about some of the bigger themes the movie explores.

“The world is moving through space, and we are turning and moving and going and time is moving, life is happening, and these characters experience pains, hardships, love, all these things, and to overthink it and just to not wonder what the play is about, you know, is just to keep doing it,” he explains.

Johansson was so buried in the script and her character and getting it right for her first time in a live-action Wes Anderson movie that some of the bigger picture themes flew right past her, including the quarantine element, which she says, “I didn’t even think about … even though we were in it when he sent me this script.”

“I didn’t even really think about it being reflective at that time, maybe because I was too in it myself,” she continues.

Jeffrey Wright, also a member of the huge ensemble cast, thinks the film approaches storytelling in a simpler way, which is reminiscent of its 1950s setting, sharing that, “Wes is a guy who appreciates, and I think I am as well, hearing a great album on vinyl as opposed to, you know, simply through some digital file.”

Adds Wright, “I think he’s celebrating some of those beautiful things that we’ve moved on from, and comparing them to how we live now.”