Okay, it's a cliché, but Texas-born
actor Owen Wilson took the saying to heart
during the six-month shoot of his new film, The Life
Aquatic, in the Eternal City.
To say, 'I lived in an apartment right next to the Palazzo Fernese
that Michelangelo designed,' reminds me of the opening line in
Out of Africa: 'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the
Ngong Hills,' " says Owen Wilson in his signature Southern twang
before suddenly jolting from his daydreams of Rome and back to
reality. "But … what was I saying again?"
He was saying that he became so enamored with the Eternal City
while filming this month's release, The Life Aquatic With
Steve Zissou, costarring Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Cate
Blanchett, that he "had to call American" to extol its virtues once
he got home.
We're sitting in Wilson's house in Santa Monica, situated on a
leafy glen off a major California thoroughfare, which the actor has
decorated with black-and-white photographs, books, and a boar's
head. But for all practical purposes, he's back in Rome. He runs up
and down his stairs to bring pictures, documents, evidence, if you
will, that he, the lanky Texan who rode a crazy grin and broken
nose to big-screen stardom, really was, from September 2003 to
February 2004, a citizen of Rome.
He'd had the trip arranged in his mind before he even got on the
plane. His college buddy and longtime writing partner, director Wes
Anderson (the pair cowrote the underground hit Bottle
Rocket, as well as The Royal Tennenbaums), had told
him he'd written a script for a movie, to be filmed in Italy,
called The Life Aquatic. But in this film, Wilson didn't
have the major role, which suited him just fine. "I thought it was
nice because it gave me a lot of downtime to explore the city,"
says Wilson. "Bill Murray [who plays Steve Zissou] said he didn't
get to appreciate it as much because he was always working. I liked
Rome so much that I never even went to Florence or any of those
other places. I kept meaning to, but it would come to be the
weekend, and it was like, 'Well, I could go do that, but I'm just
going to stay in Rome and go have gelato for the hundredth time.'
"
He took along his bike and his dog, a blue heeler named Garcia.
Several friends and family members came to visit, including his
brothers, fellow actors Andrew and Luke; his father, Robert, an
advertising exec and author who has a small role in the film; and
his mother, Laura, an author and photographer (that's her handiwork
above).
Just as he did before he left L.A. for Rome, Wilson gets into the
mood for our conversation by listening to a song, Bob Dylan's "When
I Paint My Masterpiece," that he says "helps get you ready for
Rome."
Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble, ancient
footprints everywhere. You can almost think that you're seein'
double, on a long, dark night on the Spanish Steps.
"It's a great song to listen to," Wilson reasons, "because it
captures the mood. It feels so exotic when you're there and seeing
so much history, just kind of walking around. The way the city has
people living next to ruins. People live right next to the
Colosseum. That's their view! I wake up here, and I'm looking at my
neighbor mow the yard, and they wake up and see where Caesar was
assassinated."
You were in Rome for a while. Where did you
stay?
I rented an apartment that I stayed in for almost the whole time.
[Wilson runs upstairs and returns with a photograph taken from his
third-floor apartment window.] But because the movie went over, I
also stayed at the Hotel de Russie, which is the best hotel there,
I think. It's right near the Piazza del Popolo. I also stayed at
the Hotel Eden, which is really nice, but I prefer the Hotel de
Russie. It has a good gym, and a terrace and outdoor area that are
really beautiful. The sheets in both hotels were like linen, which
was like sleeping on napkins. I think of good sheets as being
really soft, and these are almost rough, but then you get used to
them. That was my experience with Italy in general. That they've
perfected the art of living. So anything they did that you think,
Well, I prefer it this way, that's what I'm used to, if
you give it a chance over there, it usually turns out better the
way they do it. I'd go into a little dive and have some penne
arrabiata and it'd be better than anyplace in L.A., where you
pay an arm and a leg. You hear all this stuff about diets and
staying away from carbs and pasta, but there you eat pasta all the
time. Everybody does, and everybody looks pretty trim. [He pauses,
as if forgetting something.] I remember the [American Way]
thing is that you're supposed to say where you go on Friday night,
the hotel you stay in, etc. Is there a questionnaire I fill out, or
have you changed the format?
No questionnaire, just questions. Such as, what are your
favorite places in Rome?
The Colosseum. You just can't believe it's been there as long as it
has. Growing up in Dallas, you're used to, well, "That 7-Eleven has
been there since 1972. That's a landmark." Then you go to Rome, and
you're talking about something that's like 2,000 years old. I went
to the Sistine Chapel. It's something you need two days to explore.
I always associate the Trevi Fountain with that scene in the
Fellini movie where Anita Eckberg is dancing in the fountain and
looks really sexy. I didn't see her in the fountain, unfortunately.
You do see a lot of people throwing coins in, though, and it sort
of takes your breath away.
Speaking of taking your breath away, what about all the
great restaurants there?
Should I just start reeling off places? Right near the Hotel de
Russie is a great place called Dal Bolognese. It's kind of fancy.
They have great art on the wall from artists who've gone there.
Then right down the street is Beltramme Fiaschetteria, which is run
by this guy, Cesare. It's casual and you can just walk in. They
have this cacio e pepe pasta dish, a cheese-and-pepper
spaghetti, that's a Roman specialty. Nino's is famous for its white
beans marinated in olive oil. I'm a guy who likes to get a routine
down, so I'm not super adventurous about trying new places. I find
something I like and then hit it every day.
Sounds like that was the way you did all of
Rome.
Yeah, I'd go to Gina's for lunch a lot and get this great salad
with avocados and mozzarella. They also had great desserts there.
I'm not a big dessert eater, but for some reason I'd eat dessert
with every meal over there. The stuff was just so good. Ciampini
was my favorite place for gelato. Over near the Trevi Fountain is
San Crispino, which was written up in The New York Times as having
the best gelato in Rome. I liked San Crispino, but when I found
Ciampini, I felt it was the best. I liked the coffee ice cream and
the yogurt.
Anything else you did there that was out of the ordinary
for you?
I don't think of myself as a huge museum-goer. I'm somebody who
goes so I can tell people I went, rather than really wanting to go.
I get kind of tired as soon as I walk into a museum. I'd rather be
outside, you know, throwing a football. But in Rome, I felt like it
wasn't like seeing it in a museum setting, and I was able to
appreciate it more. I guess the churches had all this money and
they commissioned all these artists to do these great works. The
Contarelli Chapel near Piazza Navona has three Caravaggios. Then,
of course, you could ride your bike over to St. Peter's, near where
the pope lives. In the evening, they ring the bells, which are kind
of ominous-sounding. It sent a shiver down my spine just listening
to it.
You mentioned you took your bike with you. Can you really
get around Rome on a bicycle?
Willem Dafoe got a motor scooter, and I think Bill had one, too,
but I had a bicycle. It was the best way to see the city because
you could get around so quickly. Bill and Willem were on the
scooters, so they had to kind of follow the traffic. But on a bike,
I would just go the wrong way down a one-way street so I could go
more as the crow flies. I actually had three bikes, so when my
brother Luke was visiting me, and when another friend from Texas
came, the three of us would tear over to the Colosseum and [the
adjacent spot] where they filmed the Ben-Hur chariot
races.
It must have been nice having your dog with you, too. Where
did you take him?
I had a great driver, Francesco, and he'd take us up to this big,
beautiful park, Villa Panfili, where you could also ride your bike.
When my dad came, we'd go up there and jog. There's a palace in the
middle of it, and you see those trees that are sort of unique to
that part of Italy. Then, when I was staying at the Hotel de
Russie, right above there is another great park, Villa Borghese.
One of the things that happened in Villa Borghese is that I met
this girl and her mother. Her father was the Spanish ambassador to
the Vatican. The Palazzo di Spagna is this incredible building
where the pope comes every December 8 to recognize Spain, and the
girl's family invited me to go there. So I got to see the pope.
Wow. What does one wear to meet the pope?
I had taken one suit with me, and I only did that as an
afterthought. But I was lucky I did, because I ended up having to
wear it a lot. Another night, I got to go to a party at the French
Embassy, which is normally closed to the public, and you had to
wear a suit. There's also this cool night in Rome every fall called
the White Night, where everything stays open until 4 in the
morning. And the museums are open till midnight. There's a great
energy in the city then.
Rome is famous for its men's clothing. So, did you shop for
a new suit once you got there?
No, but I did wear a scarf. [He runs upstairs and returns with a
blue cashmere number.] You just throw it around your neck and knot
it. I was thinking scarves are so cool, so great. I got back to
Dallas and wore one out and felt kind of self-conscious. I felt a
little too foppish, like a dandy, so I stopped wearing it. It's one
of those things that's only good for Rome, I guess, because you can
dress with a little more pizazz there.
The Life Aquatic was filmed at Rome's famous
Cinecitta Studio, where classics like Roman Holiday, Three
Coins in the Fountain, and Cleopatra were filmed. How
did you like working there?
It was incredible. Cinecitta is where Fellini shot a lot of his
movies. I'd been there a couple of years before, when they were
filming Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Scorsese had said some
nice things about Bottle Rocket, the first movie I worked on, so I
arranged to visit the set and was able to shake hands with him and
watch them filming. Sometimes when we were filming there you'd have
an early call to be on set at like 6 in the morning and they'd be
making their fresh bread for the day. The best place in Rome to get
bread is called Il Forno. It's really old and it opens early.
How about the evenings? Where'd you go at
night?
La Maison, which is part of a cluster of clubs near the Abby.
Everybody smokes there, so that's a bit of a drag. But it's offset
by the way people there are so elegant. Sometimes [in the States]
the music scene is too loud. There it seemed more tasteful. At
clubs in Rome, you'd see a doorman outside of what looked like this
thousand-year-old building, and then you'd go inside and it'd be
kind of modern.
Is there one particular memory of Rome that's stayed with
you?
Romans are soccer fanatics, and I went to see a couple of games. It
was fun, and I kind of got back into the sport while I was over
there. I had a friend who visited, and we were kicking a soccer
ball around in the piazza one night, at like 2 in the morning. We
had gone out to a club and came back to give my dog some exercise
and he was chasing the ball back and forth, and the police guarding
the French Embassy were watching us, and my friend and I were
thinking, Are these guys gonna kick us out? But they started
getting into it and started kicking the ball around with us. It was
a great moment, having my dog there in the shadow of a building
designed by Michelangelo and kicking a soccer ball at 2 in the
morning with Italian cops.