Grieving father, two animated villains, bloodsports commentator: last year, Jason Schwartzman performed a cinematic hat-trick, deploying his charm and humor to steal every scene he was in, even when not the film’s protagonist. It was this home-run that saw Schwartzman, in the eleventh hour, catapulted to Letterboxd’s most watched actor of 2023—a prize he finally took delivery of last week.

In Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, he was the real zeitgeist of 2023, according to Monkkkkkkkey: “Barbie or Oppenheimer? No, Jason Schwartzman in Asteroid City.” He was The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ secret weapon, per Goongala: “Whenever Jason Schwartzman isn’t on screen, people should be asking ‘Where’s Jason Schwartzman?’ Even when playing a villain in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, he was suring himself: “Bad guy Jason Schwartzman is the best Jason Schwartzman,” writes Kyle O. (This review also applies to his reprisal of Gideon Graves in the phenomenal animated miniseries Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.)

Below, Schwartzman talks to our editorial producer and Best in Show co-host Brian Formo about channeling Stanley Tucci’s The Hunger Games performance, his decades-long collaboration with Wes Anderson, and what he told his mom when he found out he won Letterboxd’s esteemed annual prize. And to see him perform a Lucky Flickerman magic trick on camera, watch the video above.

What do you want to say to the Letterboxd community for bestowing this award upon you?
Jason Schwartzman: I’m totally mind-blown. In fact, when I heard about this, I maybe thought it was some type of prank, and then when I found out that it wasn’t, I was a bit in shock. Because there are so many movies, there are so many actors, there are so many things in this world, that to somehow have gotten filtered down to be ‘the most’ of any of these things is quite overwhelming and meaningful, especially when it comes from the Letterboxd community.

It’s people who love movies, and love movies enough to have a collection of them, in a way, and to care about them enough to recommend them, to talk about them, and to give your opinion —that's the most meaningful thing to me about the award, is that that’s who it’s coming from.

I sent this to my mom, saying, “Look, I did this!” Because I thought, finally, there’s my volleyball trophy from seventh grade, and now this. She just wrote back, “and I love you.”

But you have Lucky Flickerman.
But Ken... Anyway, it was just crazy. But that’s so cool that those movies were appreciated and watched.

What was your association or interest in The Hunger Games prior [to being in the prequel], and how closely did you watch Stanley Tucci’s performance as Caesar Flickerman?
When the first one came out, I went and saw it opening weekend. I seeing Stanley Tucci, thinking, ‘Now that is what you want to get to.’ How wonderful is that, that he gets to be in this film, which it seems like a lot of people are watching, and yet he gets to play this wild, slightly demonic character, but is so flashy and glitzy that it’s like a spoonful-of-sugar-type thing.

I love Stanley Tucci. Big Night is just such an important movie to me. I got married in 2009 and I was able to locate a Big Night cookbook that was released based on the film, because I wanted to have my wedding be inspired by the food of Big Night. Stanley Tucci has always been an actor that I really ired, especially that film and his work with those actors.

When [The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes] came along, it was very strange because to be able to do a prequel that informs this character that I loved so much, that’s the dream. To be able to set up his character was really fun, but so scary, because it’s just a weird opportunity to try to be connected to something that you love that was from years prior, and you are responsible in some way for those things that have already happened. My defeatist mind thought, ‘Well, you can’t do that because he already was incredible. If I can’t be as good as Stanley Tucci, what’s the best way not to fail?’

My main feeling was, how can I set it up for him? [Caesar] is so successful in those movies that it obviously became a family business. So I was like, ‘I’ve got to be a good host, or else they wouldn’t hire me or my family ever again.’ Though I know the games aren’t real, I’ve got to get good ratings. It was like a weird Back to the Future thing, because if I’m not good, it erases him.

Francis Lawrence, the director, said the most ideal situation would be if I could prepare a ‘full Hunger Games’—to be prepared as though they would never have to cut away, to have a full-on Lucky Flickerman experience. Me and Michael Lesslie, the writer, and Tobias Dostal, who was my magic coach, and Francis—we basically just tried to come up with as much stuff to keep the beach ball in the air, as if it were a real thing.

Basically my whole thing with the character was: he doesn’t like watching it. That’s why he makes jokes, because he has some trauma, probably; he was probably in a war, given his age. So my rule was, whenever they cut to you, the first thing you have to talk about is never the games. They have to be something else, because he’s too cut-off.

Then [Lawrence] just let me mess around and have fun. It was hard, especially in that room—we shot it in and I’m trying to make all these jokes. I’m like, ‘I don’t even know if these jokes work through the international language of comedy. Whatever I’m doing, my schtick here has got to be funny enough for these extras that are sitting here all day in these hot costumes, pretending to be interested.’ I was just trying  room.

We went for just a few minutes, just racing through the streets of Houston and near where the school was. He was so excited about it, and so happy, and I realized that that look on his face, on every movie we’ve done, there’s always been a moment like that, where I see: this is the happiest place that Wes could be, working on these movies, loving the actors, loving the props and the sets, the community of it, and just really appreciating everything and everyone around, visibly showing his excitement about being there. That’s always been there since day one, but I think that it’s gotten bigger, as the movies have gotten sometimes more intricate.

One thing about working with Wes that has been such an important, essential quality to our friendship, is that it’s based on enthusiasm and interest in things, and sharing them with each other. From the second I met Wes when I was seventeen at the audition, we started talking about music that we liked and things we were interested in. When I went to Houston, he was just enough older than me that he started showing me movies in his hotel room; I didn’t know who François Truffaut was. Him saying, “Check this out, check this out,” making little lists of things, saying, “You gotta hear this Kinks song,” and then whatever I was interested in, he’d check it out.

One of the first things I feel like we do when we get together is just: “What movies are sitting over there on that counter?” Or, “what book is that?” That’s the quickest way to find out where your friends are at. Especially if they don’t live in the same town as you, and you don’t see them very often. When I go see Wes, just looking around at the objects in his house, or the books that are stacked, it’s such a great way to learn about someone, and to learn about what they’re interested in. That’s really what Letterboxd is about, is the same thing: the community of sharing and enthusiasm for discovery.

You are our most watched actor of 2023, but do you watch your own films? Do you actually like to go back and rewatch things that you’ve worked on, or can you only watch other people’s work?
I haven’t watched things that I’ve done really in a long time, but that said, I’m also not trying to avoid that. It’s like, now, especially with our phones, the first thing you do when you take a picture of someone is, they’re like, “Let me see it.” You want to see it and approve it. It’s this relationship to yourself with these self-portraits everywhere, and a movie in a way is a similar experience, a little bit.

But I’m able to watch a movie that I’ve done, because I had to just get over me. A movie is the work of a lot of people, and that’s what makes it so awesome, is the work that everybody did. I just made a film called Between the Temples, and I wanted to watch it. I’m not sitting there looking at myself like, ‘Son of a gun, look at that guy!’ But I look at it and I’m like, ‘Man, Sean Price Williams, the cinematographer, what an incredible job he did.’ And I wanted to tell him that when it was over. I know how hard everyone worked, so you just want to congratulate and celebrate the efforts of those around you who worked on a movie. You say, “Thank you for letting me be a part of this thing.” I kind of want to watch it one time for that reason, because if you don’t, then people think you watched it and didn’t like it.