Biography for
Wes Anderson (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 May 1969, Houston, Texas, USA

Birth Name

Wesley Wales Anderson

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Trade Mark

Makes obsessive and comedic use of "rostrum camera" insert shots, foregrounding the minutiae of books and other documents.

Has ended all his movies with a slow-motion shot, with the exception of The Darjeeling Limited (2007).

Just about the entire soundtrack in all of his movies, with the exception of the Darjeeling Limited, is composed by Mark Mothersbaugh.

Frequently casts Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Andrew Wilson, Bill Murray, Kumar Pallana, Dipak Pallana, Brian Tenenbaum, Stephen Dignan, and Anjelica Huston.

Likes to shoot with extremely wide-angle anamorphic lenses that exhibit considerable barrel distortion.

Frequently uses a take/double take technique where he will show a character/action, quickly pan to another character/action, then pan back, usually with handheld camera.

Movies often focus around a broken or unorthodox family circle

At least one of his characters is usually a grown man seeking the approval of a parent or parent figure.

Often includes songs by The Rolling Stones on the soundtracks of his films.

The titlecards are always in the font: Futura Bold, most commonly in yellow color.

Frequently uses music by Rolling Stones.

Trivia

Some of the character names in his movies, most notably in Rushmore (1998), were actually the names of his St. John's classmates.

Graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Martin Scorsese is a big fan of his movies, even choosing him as the next Martin Scorsese in an Esquire magazine article.

While shooting The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) the once pasty, bookish Anderson got a tan, grew his hair long, and got into better shape. His frequent star, Anjelica Huston, noted that Wes had "suddenly" become "handsome".

Wrote Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with Owen Wilson, whose brother, Luke Wilson, appears in all three movies.

Wes Anderson attended St. John's School in Houston, TX.

Met good friend Owen Wilson when they were roommates at the University of Texas.

Personal Quotes

I want to try not to repeat myself. But then I seem to do it continuously in my films. It's not something I make any effort to do. I just want to make films that are personal, but interesting to an audience. I feel I get criticized for style over substance, and for details that get in the way of the characters. But every decision I make is how to bring those characters forward.

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