Given that Woody Allen essentially gets whoever he wants to star in his films, all for the price of a song, you might think that actors and actresses don't fret too much about the script. After all, they're just happy to be working with a legend. But in the case of Owen Wilson, while he was certainly eager to take a role in "Midnight In Paris," it seems he had a few doubts about whether or not the time-jumping nature of the story could be pulled off.
“When I read the script, I didn’t quite get it,” Wilson said, presenting the movie at an outdoor screening at Dallas' Klyde Warren Park. “I remember talking with Wes [Anderson] and saying, ‘Geez, I dunno. It has a time-travel element, and I don’t know how that’s gonna work. Who do you get to play Hemingway, Fitzgerald, all those iconic figures?"
But of course, Allen had an array of talent in his pocket to help pull that off, with Tom Hiddleston (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Alison Pill (Zelda Fitzgerald), Corey Stoll (Ernest Hemingway), Adrien Brody (Salvador Dali), Kathy Bates (somewhat undersung as Getrude Stein) and more all bringing the far gone era to memorable life (even if the grumps at the Faulkner estate don't like it). Of course, Wilson later realized that it was exactly those elements that made it such a winning film (the top grossing indie of 2011, and the best box office flick of Allen's career too) but even after he saw the finished movie, he wasn't quite sure the time traveling aspect was a success.
“I think that ends up being one of the most successful parts of the movie, all that stuff. You just go along for the ride, literally …” Wilson said. “All the actors [Allen] cast for those guys, it just kind of works…And even when I saw the movie, I was, ‘Well, you know, it seems, I dunno.’ I have a hard time judging stuff I’ve worked on. When it did come out, some people really seemed to love it.” Certainly, one of the understatements of the year. [D Magazine]