Little White Lies Issue 74

Released 30 MARCH A small bronze statue of an Akita stands at one of the five entrances to Shibuya Station in Tokyo, serving as a popular meeting place and point of interest for the thousands of visitors who pass through each week. This particular Akita, who is immortalised in precious metal, has a name and a history – Hachikō, the dog who patiently waited nine years on this very spot for a master who would never return. He may have passed away some 80 years ago, but the tale of the dog who waited continues to enchant and inspire folk the world over. In his new film Isle of Dogs, it seems that Wes Anderson has spun a similarly wistful yarn about about the strangely transcendent power of canine companionship. Anderson…

Is there a pleasure quite like listening to the soothing and amiable voice of Wes Anderson as he turns his mind towards answering questions on his own carefully-calibrated terms? The focus of this conversation with the master director is Isle of Dogs, a language-obsessed, political conspiracy-themed, stop-motion adventure concerning dogs exiled to a trash island in a near-future Japan. Midway through our chat, the line goes dead. Some painful moments pass. When we are back in touch, Wes reveals that he is on a train passing through Switzerland and just went through a tunnel. Unable to contain myself, I say, “Are you trying to act like a character in your film, it’s perfect?” He indulges me with a little laugh before explaining: “No I have to. I’m on my way…

“My first impression of Wes when I met him was... Honestly, it had to do with he had on Converse sandals. I had never seen those before. I had never been to an audition before either. I was so nervous and I really didn't know what to expect sitting alone in that waiting room with all these professional actors with their parents. What is on the other side of that door? Who is the person gonna be? I didn’t know what Wes looked like or anything. So, when the door opened, I remember thinking, ‘He’s young. He looks like someone I could be friends with,’ even though I was 10 years younger, but I guess it was a good first start for the character. And these sandals, I'd never seen…

“Wes had a period where he lived in LA briefly and we got to know each other a little bit, just as friends. The real point where I became more of a collaborator was during The Life Aquatic. I had done second unit, meaning directing additional photography for projects, with friends and family so I said, ’Oh if you ever need a little help just call on me.’ He had never really worked in that way and was a little sceptical but I ended up coming to Italy, just because I was there. I just sort of showed up on the set and ended up saying, ’Well let me just help with this a little bit,‘ or, ’I can go take this camera and go shoot a boat in the…

“Wes is the filmmaker so as writers we’re in service of him as he’s trying to find this target. He has something in his mind’s eye that is the right thing and we’re there to help him find that. Wes likes to, as we go about our day, eat interesting food, see interesting things in museums. There's always a seeking of stimulating things. So we’ll talk and we’ll have experiences or watch a movie or read a passage from a book or just something that is in the spirit of what we're doing. It may not be direct research but it shares the mood. We’ll spot something and it’ll spark a discussion and when something really smells right and is part of the film based on Wes’s instinct then it…

“If I have an idea I say, ’How about this thing?’ and if the response is, ’Oh yes that sounds like it could be something good’ I will be motivated, but if the response is, ’Hmm maybe’ I’m less motivated. The thing with Wes that I really found so inspiring and the opposite of me is that he has this idea and he’s like, ’Dogs... Japan...’ and it was almost very poetic how vague it was. No one really knew what we were looking for until we hit it. The three of us were like archeologists, just digging and asking, ’What is this? What is this? What is this?' and Wes might be the expert on that particular subject. He’d go, ’Oh yes, this bone is part of the thing’.”…