How 'Asteroid City’s' Cast Interprets That Cryptic Line From Wes Anderson’s New Film
Interview with Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright from Asteroid City.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00So there's one line from this movie that has just rolled around in my head since the lights went up and I wanted to ask you what your thoughts were on it.
00:09Can't wake up if you don't go to sleep.
00:11Yes, exactly. What does that mean to you? That was not predictable at all.
00:16I don't know. What does it mean to you?
00:21When I when I watched it within the context of everything going on now.
00:29There was something about. In my head.
00:34That related to. Staying awake.
00:39Staying woke. Maybe that was just me imposing, but I liked it.
00:46I liked it.
00:49There's another reference, similar reference in French Dispatch.
00:54Nuna some possibly don't. We're not sleepy.
00:57With the students. Right.
01:00So I don't know. There's a theme that West may be playing with.
01:05Keep your eyes open.
01:07You know.
01:09Watch them.
01:13Well, it's a little bit of a Zen koan.
01:15That's my interpretation where it's not.
01:18You can't quite understand it intellectually, but the idea of waking up, waking up to the present moment, waking up to wonder.
01:26I think that's kind of what West is pointing to, that there is something that's beyond what we can understand.
01:36And like what Adrian Brody's character is saying to Jason's character about just keep telling the story.
01:42You're doing great. You don't need to understand. Just keep moving forward.
01:46I mean, because this movie is is aimed at today's audience.
01:50To me, it's about, you know, I feel every day that I'm just battling this wave of information and digital content.
01:59And to me, it's about saying we have to we have to we have to put it down and go to sleep and wake up.
02:07You know, it's like that. It's it's very literal in a way that it's like we we have to find a way to get back to a kind of more natural rhythm of actually detaching from the world.
02:17Letting your brain shut down so you can actually be with the person that you're facing the next day.
02:23Right. Rather than everyone kind of existing in this half kind of awake, half half there, half not there.
02:28I mean, I think this is something that West must have a strong opinion about because you never see him distracted.
02:34I've never seen him hold a phone or I don't know if he has a phone, but I think it's like we got it.
02:39We got to, you know, I mean, people are I think we tend to especially because we're all connected to social media and whatever.
02:45Like we tend to walk around in this trance state.
02:48Yeah. And it's kind of a call to, hey, wake up.
02:51Yeah. There's something happening right in front of you right here, right now.
02:54Yeah. I think it means if you don't take the time to rest and to let go, you like you'll never really have awareness of what is happening in the world around you.
03:08And I mean, I think anyone can have a different interpretation, but like awakeness in terms of like spiritual awakeness and presence in your own life, being present and that you can't really be present if you don't let yourself rest.
03:21Yeah. I would go on a little bit more into the sort of meditation side of things.
03:26I think it's about shedding the ego and the sense of I and remembering that everything is connected.
03:32And if you want to enter that dream and it is a true dream, then you do have to drop this notion of us and them.