Wes Anderson Slipped Some Foreshadowing Into Asteroid City's Opening Credits
This post contains spoilers for "Asteroid City."
I have an unhealthy fascination with billing for a movie. I love seeing who gets top billing and who gets single card or shared card billing. More than anything, though, I love seeing who gets the extras in their credit, whether it's "with," "and," "introducing," or simply saying this actor is this character. Not only is it a fun peek behind-the-scenes into contract negotiations for credit, but they create a fun vibe for what you are about to experience in the film or make you reflect on what you just saw.
With Wes Anderson's films, the casts are obviously star-studded affairs, usually with something like two dozen major actors appearing in the film. A leading actor in one film could show up for just one scene in the next, and I like seeing where they show up in the credits each time. With a cast as sprawling as "The French Dispatch," who would be the one to nab the top-billed spot? It was Benicio del Toro, which may surprise you.
When I sat down to see his latest film "Asteroid City," I was very curious how the credits would look, given that 21 names appear on the film's poster alone. What I loved about the opening credits is that every actor is billed along with their character name. One, in particular, stood out to me. It was in the ending "and" position, but it was not given that credit. It simply said, "Jeff Goldblum as the alien." You see those five words together and become immediately jazzed. Not only was I anxious to see one of our most idiosyncratic performers play a Wes Andersonian alien, I was surprised they let us know that information so soon into the movie.
Purely physical performance
Much to my surprise, the alien character plays a very small role in the movie. Even more surprising: it's mostly a stop-motion animated puppet. From my recollection, there's only one shot in the movie where it is not a puppet, and it's instead (I assume) Jeff Goldblum in a full-body suit where you can't see his face or hear his voice. Perhaps Goldblum provided reference material for the puppeteer. However way you slice it, this isn't the alien performance you are expecting.
As for why Jeff Goldblum gets recognition in the opening credits, Wes Anderson tells AP News, "We naturally were debating whether this is necessary in the opening credits. I said, 'You know, it's a good thing.' It's a little foreshadowing. In our story, it's not a expansive role." Ultimately, the point of the movie isn't the alien, so why should its secrecy be held from the audience when every other character gets the same treatment.
"Asteroid City" is a tribute to performers, as it is told as a play-within-the-movie. Wes Anderson wanted to give Goldblum the billing worthy of a craft he so admires, continuing on to say:
"What does it mean when you give a performance? If somebody has probably written something and then you study it and learn and you have an interpretation. But essentially you take yourself and put it in the movie. And then you take a bunch of people taking themselves and putting themselves in the movie. They have their faces and their voices, and they're more complex than anything than even the AI is going to come up with."
Renowned acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavski once said, "There are no small parts, only small actors," and Wes Anderson understands that better than almost any other filmmaker working today.