admin When I interviewed him for GQ over the summer, Schwartzman told me he was nervous because the role was so big. “It’s like, jeez, I hope I can do the best I can for this,” he said. He needn’t have worried: What he does as Jones and Augie is both impressive and shockingly emotional; he’s using both these characters to tap into Anderson’s questions about why we make art.
But Anderson wasn’t the only filmmaker who thought Schwartzman could handle multifaceted material. It felt like Across the Spider-Verse was only a teaser of what he will do in its sequel, but as The Spot, a former scientist who can now hop through dimensions thanks to a collider explosion caused by Miles Morales, Schwartzman demonstrates range yet again. Using only his voice, he pulls off the trick of making The Spot laughable at first, before his rage becomes actually threatening and scary for our heroes.
In the Scott Pilgrim series he almost does the opposite: Record exec Gideon was the big bad in Edgar Wright’s 2010 film, but the new animated series gives him a fall from grace so humbling he reverts back to his former persona, Gordon Goose, a nerd with no friends.
Perhaps Schwartzman’s turns in Hunger Games and Quiz Lady are the most expected for him— in both, he’s a smug know-it-all with gleaming white teeth—but they equally demonstrate his knack for broader comedy. In one of Hunger Games’ best moments, director Francis Lawrence cuts to Schwartzman’s Lucky calling a restaurant to explain that he’ll be late, because the kids in the arena are somehow staying alive.
Schwartzman is not exactly chameleonic—he is always quintessentially himself—but he is adaptable, and within that often surprisingly remarkable. When I asked Schwartzman about appearing in multiple high profile projects at once he launched into a metaphor, likening himself to a brush or a tool that a director might use to help complete their work.
“I’m very grateful to just be even something that would be considered reaching for,” he said. “I never thought I would be here and I appreciate it so fucking deeply. It’s insane. I get kind of choked up about it because just the fact that someone could ask you to do something and have faith in you—as you go on, you realize it’s the ultimate thing, to be asked to be a part of something.”
Well, Jason, we’re grateful too.
