Since April, the internet has been enthralled with the eye of Wes Anderson, creator of Dispatch, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and most recently Asteroid City. The distinguishing aesthetics of Anderson films sparked inspiration for hundreds of memes, YouTube videos, and TikTok tributes – where the trend has garnered over 1.7 billion views(opens in a new tab).
Anderson himself isn’t one of those.
In an interview with The Times(opens in a new tab), the filmmaker said he doesn’t watch any of these creations.
“I’m very good at protecting myself from seeing all that stuff. If somebody sends me something like that I’ll immediately erase it and say, ‘Please, sorry, do not send me things of people doing me.’ Because I do not want to look at it, thinking, ‘Is that what I do? Is that what I mean?’ I don’t want to see too much of someone else thinking about what I try to be because, God knows, I could then start doing it.”
Despite his (fairly well-thought-out) apprehension over the trend, social media has a mind of its own. The obsession over Anderson’s symmetry, pastel-strewn sets and blank-faced subjects persists. The cast of Asteroid City just recently mimicked the trend themselves,(opens in a new tab) as promotional material for the upcoming release.
As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Asteroid City is will release in select theaters on Friday, June 16 then nationwide on Friday, June 23.
