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The veteran actor has a cold, but this is not beyond a few slices of avocado pancakes, some hydrating therapies, cycling, hot tea, half a slice of lime pie, and the magic of life. Spend three days with Rocky Stars, French Express, and all the movies you know by heart.

is it him? There was a man circling on the asphalt road, all the way, all the way down the street, wearing a ball cap and sunglasses. When you see his whole body, it turns out that he is riding a bicycle, so he looks like he is hovering. He is half standing on the bicycle, one leg straightened, and his lips pursed in the relative wind, like a child wandering on the bicycle rack at school. Even if he doesn't step on the pedals, the bicycle can maintain its speed. He is wearing long trousers, although the weather is warm. This may be the beginning of the article, I was thinking.

But what is this? Another person was circling behind him on another bicycle. Two people. So maybe it's not him? Except that he is closer now, it is almost certainly him: handsome face, blond hair hanging down from the ball cap, and very cool plaid shirt.

If it is him, we should have breakfast, should I have a long line? Or he doesn't have to wait in line because he is famous? Maybe this is his regular breakfast spot-they know him, and he has a special table-so waiting in line makes me look like an amateur.

Or maybe everyone knows that once you reach Blueys, you'd better enter the line immediately. He would want to know why I would stand here in the parking lot and wave.

Who is this other person?

is it him? He looks nervous. I guess he thinks it's shorts weather. This is a screenwriter? So pale. He shifted a bit from foot to foot. I am glad that I brought an Allen key for another bicycle because he is a bit tall and we may need to adjust the seat. I also hope this sore throat disappears. I have a cold, I think. I wonder if we should postpone this interview until later in the day.

There is a line. There is no line at other times. Maybe there is usually a line, and Paul and I were lucky that time?

It's ok. Maybe this is a good start to the story.

The writer looked nervous—if that was anyone. Now he was waving.

"One thing needs to be clarified," Owen Wilson said in a low voice, as if this might be the first sentence he said today.

It was a warm Saturday morning in June, and we were at the Blueys Restaurant in the Santa Monica Industrial District. Irving had just parked an electric bike, a person on the other bike greeted him, got off the bike, and disappeared. Another bicycle is for me to use after breakfast. "Do you want to go elsewhere?" When I asked, I immediately regretted it.

Owen calmly said, "Well, wait... I think... Let's just..." and walked to the door, poking out his head.

You order at the counter, and then they bring your food to a table outside. Seriously Californian food-you can use soyrizo in your breakfast burrito instead of sausage, and things like bulletproof coffee. The locals who recently woke up from a year-long slumber were draped on furniture like Dali Clock, holding a latte with two hands.

We walked in, and then returned to the gray light through the cornflower blue sky. The staff smiled at us, but no one spoke. "Here, maybe we can go there and sit down," Irving said. He walked to an empty picnic table in the corner, where there was no sunlight. People are sitting at all other tables, but for some reason it is not this table, hidden in the alley.

But then he changed direction! He walked to a shortened school bus parked outside the dining room seat. They sell vintage clothes outside the bus. Owen looked at a bright yellow trench coat with camaro z/28 written on it. He stared at the back of the bus. A brown T-shirt hung inside to commemorate Iditarod in 1987.

"Do you know what Iditarod is?" he asked me.

I know, I told him.

He moved his chin forward to show Owen Wilson's smile.

"Let's sit down," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

We have not ordered yet. We have no food yet. We have no coffee yet. Just talk. The waiter turned around, pushing the quinoa bowl and acai berries.

This scene brought Owen's memory to another restaurant, which made him smile. He and Wes Anderson are writing the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. They were nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. As part of the backstory, they formed a restaurant called Sloppy Huck's, which was developed by Royal Tenenbaum (by Gene Hackman ) Used to take his children when they were young. "This is the place. There are peanut shells on the floor and the menu is very strange, with rhubarb pie and corn fritter casserole," he said. "Every booth has those jukeboxes, right on the table, you can look through them. There are also bullet holes in the windows. Because the bad guys have tried to rob the cash register several times, so sloppy is always vigilant."

This article was published in the September 2021 issue of Esquire Subscribe

He is fifty-two years old. His skin is tanned, healthy-rosy-he has enviable blond hair, and it always seems that he was swimming in the sea half an hour ago and then dried in the sun, annoyingly perfect. Blue eyes are as blue as in the movie, or bluer. There is a half-doughnut half-taco logo on his ball cap, which is a film totem recently shot in Saratoga Springs, New York. (A man who owns a taco and doughnut shop gave it to him.) He doesn't put his phone on the table like most people do. When he answered questions, it was not like being interviewed, but like standing in a corner of a party, chatting and telling pleasant stories.

I began to wonder, how long do we have to eat breakfast? Is he leaving soon? Are we going to ride bicycles?

"Sloppy Huck didn't enter the movie," he said with a smile.

He asked questions. He reads very well. Very easy to read. We analyzed the different narrative styles of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He told me of a book recently given to him by his brother Luke: the biography of an unnamed Swiss writer named Robert Walser. He mentioned that he picked up a copy of "Snow Leopard" not long ago, and he said that this book is very important to him.

At the same time, I'm asking him normal interview questions, and I haven't figured out where he is going. What will the story be like?

Tom Hiddleston and I mentioned Loki, which is a clever and interesting Marvel series that he starred in Disney+ as an agent Mobius. "We did a press conference for this yesterday," he said.

"What did they ask you?" It was my tentative question.

"They asked me a lot about—'It sounds like you have to be persuaded to do this.' I don't know where they got it from. That's not true. The director just called me and told me this idea, so I just I want to start doing it. But somehow, their news notes seem to say that I know nothing about MCUs. I don’t know anything about it, but I know—"

"Actually, yes, I probably don't know much about it. I know Iron Man a little bit. I have seen Aquaman. He swims in jeans. No one can swim in jeans! This is the argument between me and my children about Aquaman."

(Speaking of Rocky: Irving is known for improvisation. In a scene in the first episode, Rocky was very conceited during the interrogation of Mobius. Mobius just said, "You are just a little Cat." "All Irving," Hiddleston told me.)

It's not that Irving is not interested in talking about these things, but he soon started to stay away from it, telling me that when he was shooting Rocky in Atlanta, he made a leaf catching game for himself and his children. "We play, you have to grab it with one hand and run," he said. "This is good because it makes you look up."

He shook his head almost imperceptibly, squinted his eyes, laughed almost imperceptibly, and almost whispered: "Yes. Jieye Game."

The digital tape recorder was placed on the table in front of him, and its red signal light was a small beacon.

"Do you have to think of an angle for the story?" I tried, I said. One angle, one idea.

He nodded deliberately. Nodding deeper than normal.

"Do you have any special sports?" he asked.

"Yes, I ran away."

"What did you run?"

"Do you think you can beat me in the game?"

I looked at him, stammering, and the question remained unresolved. "what?"

Smiling blue eyes staring at me. You heard my voice.

"Do you think you can beat me in the game?"

I think this is what Jennifer Aniston, who has worked with Irving in two films, meant when he told me "he is disarming."

Grab the leaves. running contest. Is this the same thing? I asked Owen. Does he dare to challenge people? Can he make games?

"Yeah, well, my brothers will say I make the rules."

"It can be traced back to childhood and lasted until yesterday," said his brother Andrew, who is four years older than him. Owen’s highest achievement in game invention is called "Tip Horse", which is a combination of 21 and horse based on basketball. At this point, he is so deterrent that he calls himself when playing this game Professor Tippins. "There are many rules, even if each rule has an appendix, and each rule is negotiable," Andrew said.

Everyone seems to have a story: During filming at the Grand Budapest Hotel in Germany, Owen invited Adrien Brody (Adrien Brody) to bowling. Owen claims that he has never played bowling. Brody participated in the first two games, and each game had a round of beer. Irving then announced that the winner of the next game would be responsible for the drinks. "He killed me!" Brody said.

"There is a lake nearby, we have been there when we were young," Luke said. "One summer, Irving tried a method. In order to join the team, everyone had to do a new trick by the lake every day. So you find yourself getting higher and higher, climbing on this tree, and it becomes more The more dangerous it is, I remember thinking that I will die when I hang out with these people."

Ben Stiller: "One night about twenty years ago, Irving and I and Anthony Kidd were challenging each other around the Hollywood Reservoir. This is a 90s story. I think the game never happened, but Irving It's the one who made the game happen." Stiller said Owen likes "connections in life." This is the root of his constant invention of competitive games. I think: games are fun, and when people have fun together, they will keep in touch.

"Your man is here", sung by The Pixies. "They also play great music in this place," he said, as if suddenly revealing an invisible truth.

I mentioned that in the car I rented, I have been listening to the 80s on 8, SiriusXM channel, which is dedicated to playing music from the 80s. "I can't listen sometimes because it's so heartbreaking," Irving said. "I would drive home and listen to it, like, I can't accept this song right now. I'm listening, I think it's Channel 73, 1940s Junction, etc. I like that."

"Me too. That sounds like the soundtrack from a Woody Allen movie—hey, this is a great movie," I said.

"Yes, midnight in Paris. I remember talking to someone before doing this and saying,'If it's like Vicki Christina Barcelona, ​​one of Woody Allen's movies, wouldn't it be great? Like? A good guy? I remember sitting next to Rachel McAdams at the Cannes Film Festival, thinking, um, this is definitely not one of them! This tragedy. But then it is one of them! So it’s weird, isn’t it? When you are doing it, you can’t handle such a thing. Because now I can see it and go,'Oh, yes, it's good!"

Owen looks like a person rolling in his life, as if he stumbled over from the last century, and will eventually linger on the road towards the future. Or, in a slightly different way, a fool. But people who are familiar with him say, although, yes, he is those things, and even more powerful than that. "He seems smart, and sometimes even hides his intelligence and his reading level," Wes Anderson said. "He surprised you in getting to know him. People may sometimes underestimate him."

But it is undeniable that it is also nice to have him by his side. "People are attracted to him. If the kids choose a team, he may be good at any sport, but I think he will be selected faster than his talent in this sport implies, because people want him to join theirs. The team," Anderson said.

On Marley & Me, Aniston told me, "Owen volleyed back and forth with me very well. I remember I laughed a lot. I only love one person who can make me laugh. This is the key to my heart."

Andrew and Owen collaborated in "Bottle Rocket". This is the first film Owen and Anderson have collaborated with. It is also the first film directed by Anderson, and it is also Owen's first acting. Owen plays Digenan, an eccentric and charming outsider who has an amateur desire for a criminal life. "In this scene, my character is really mean to him," Andrew said. "I made fun of the jumpsuit he was wearing, and then drove away. Luke, who played his friend, tried to reassure Digenan and said, "Did you see what he was wearing? "Digenan said, "Yes, it's cool." "I think you saw a little Owen there."

"French Express" is the seventh Anderson movie starred in by Owen. It is the kind of movie he called "handmade". This is his work on filmmakers such as Allen, Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson. Of praise, Owen has worked with them for inherent vices. French Dispatch is a triumph of visual narrative-watching it is like reading the best issue ever of a great magazine, and this is the theme of this movie. The way Owen speaks, with a brisk voice, you can hear happiness, not only in this movie, but also in this place — in this place in his career, in this place for breakfast, in this place where he lived It’s been 25 years in this small town, and it’s a beautiful day, and his child will have a football match later. all.

"I don't know. I have been in a lucky situation, and I am very grateful for things," he said, almost surprised. "I know everything will have its ups and downs, but when you encounter one of these waves, you must ride for as long as possible. I just think—yes. It feels quite grateful. Well, gratitude is always being One of those words used. Appreciate. Of, you know, things."

A butterfly took his words into the flowers of a nearby jacaranda tree. He looked up and said, "How is our production line?"

We are sharing the pancakes he ordered for me after seeing other people ordering. They are warm and made of pumpkin, with some cool mashed avocado between each layer, topped with oatmeal granola with berries and maple syrup. A meal in a dream.

"Isn't this fun? A vegetable," Irving said. "Is there any guacamole in it?" All the waiters in the restaurant are wearing light-colored T-shirts with the words on the back, I hope you are there. "Is this really what the T-shirt here said?" Owen asked. He smiled and looked around in disbelief. "Did we get hit by a garbage truck? Is this heaven? Because I had a sore throat for a minute. And you—" He was chewing.

"I don't know where I am."

"You don't know where you are! You have jet lag. Standing in the parking lot waving."

"I've been looking for you, but there are signs of danger that you can and can't stop everywhere, and I'm very nervous."

"Don't give up until the miracle appears. You are ready to press the eject button! Just like when I first saw you, you said, "Should we go?" "I said,'Nuh nuh nuh, let us see. I know someone panicked in my hands. "We are losing this student!" "I can feel it. I know I can't make you line up-I can't do that to you. Let's relax him. Then I said very gently,'Is the line down? And you stand up [applause] ] It’s like a shot!"

We ate in silence for a few minutes. I return to my interview question: Will he cook?

"I don't, ah, cook," he said slowly, holding back a smile. "The sandwiches I made are delicious."

"What kind of sandwich?"

"Well, it's really like peanut butter and jelly," Irving said with a smile now.

"Crunchy or smooth? This is what people want to know."

"I think I prefer crispy. Although I actually use almond butter, I call it peanut butter and jelly."

Having said that, Owen stopped, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and nodded as if he had come to a conclusion.

"If you don't feel any pressure on this story-like I sometimes feel about movies-it would be nice to make a set. Just to have a story... I won't say boring, because I don't find it boring. A movie, nothing more. We have to do something where we don’t have any article burden. We kind of joked that this is something people want to know:'No, it’s not crunchy peanut butter. I use smooth Yes, but I actually use almond butter instead of peanut butter. Look, I do find it interesting!"

I took a sip of the watermelon smoothie he recommended. As the smoothie reached the bottom of the glass, a few Chilean dust survived. The last bite is the best. "Stuck in the middle with you" is playing.

"This place," I said, shaking my head.

Owen seemed to be holding my shoulder with his hand, and smiled and said, "Do you understand now?"

A biography is not a story.

Owen Wilson grew up in Dallas, he is the second child between Andrew and Luke, three years younger than him. Both parents are from Massachusetts. Irving’s father, Bob, is a television executive and advertising man. He graduated from Dartmouth University. Even after his three sons were rejected by the admissions department, he still loyally raised funds for the college. Bob is a great father, the kind of person everyone likes to be around. Wilson boys grew up in a comfortable environment, get along well, play football and do required homework. Their mother, Laura, is a photographer and cooks home-cooked dinners for them almost every night. There are no sugar cereals or soft drinks in the house. Irving was expelled from a private high school for various pranks, witty words, and charming but annoying disobedience. He eventually entered a military school in New Mexico, which Andrew heard from his college friends. He stayed at the University of Southern California for a year and then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. He did not fully graduate, but there he met Wes Anderson in a script writing class. They eventually became roommates, and co-wrote a short film called Bottle Rocket, which was made into a feature film in 1996, somehow let James Caan play a supporting role. Other actors include Dipak Pallana, who owns an Indian cafe where Owen plays chess; Dipak’s father, Kumar, who plays a safe named Kumar; Stephen Dignan, a friend from his hometown, he The last name is used for Owen's role. Owen bought a house after Bottle Rocket, he planned to flip it, but still lives here today. Later he also got a place in Maui. Like millions of other people, he has been struggling with depression. In 2007, he experienced the painful experience of hearing reports of him trying to end his life in the world. He recovered from that terrible plot, and friends and family supported him every day, wrapping their love around him and sleeping beside him.

He always refuses to talk about it publicly, but since then he has made many great movies, such as Marley and me, Mr. Fox, Hall Pass, Midnight in Paris, Danian (bird watching movie) and Stie Martin), "Her Way is Interesting" (directed by the legendary Peter Bogdanovic, Owen’s second film with Aniston), "Born Abuses" and "Lost in London" ( Written and directed by Woody Harrison, if there is a movie on this list, you would never know) Heard of it but managed to see it, so be it). Add this year's "Rocky" (not a movie, but great) (season 2 is in production), the gorgeous French Express (released on October 22) and the delightful "Marry Me" (2022 It was released in February 2015, his lover is Jennifer Lopez). He has two young sons, 10 and 7 years old. They are two different ex-partners-each of them lives nearby and Get along well, and Owen’s sons are single fathers. The other night, when he was cutting young nails, the boy said angrily: "Don't go offline!" Owen said, "Relax!" The whole scene was full of tension. Later, Owen said to his son: "What did you say?" The boy dutifully said: "You go," and then murmured to his brother, "Nothing." Owen heard it. "The way we play these roles is very interesting, because just yesterday, I seemed to be the one who muttered'for nothing,' and now I am the one in this role. Once you grow up, you think childhood is so naive And beautiful, but you forgot. That’s why I like to be in Last Tango. When she talked about how beautiful it is to be a child, Brando said, “Is it beautiful to be woven into a little story? Or forced to worship Authority? This is an important part of being a child: being broken... It's like Luke the cool hand-I'm going to ruin him. Then he said, "It's wasted. [Smiles] That's me. This is how you end up at the military school, all those "get nothing."

We rode electric bicycles to a sports field with six turf courts, full of children and parents. When we walked to the fence, Owen yelled, "Hey, man," his eldest son was warming up, and quickly yelled, "Hey, Dad!"

We wandered around, and Owen outlined the bicycle race rules he and Woody Harrison made on Maui: "You see who must be down to earth first. You can put your hands on a pole or a car, but the first person to put down loses. You’ll be surprised: you can do it for a few hours and it’s fun.” I tried to return to a normal interview. What music did he like best when he was a kid?

"The first concert I attended was the Rolling Stones, in 1981, Tattoo You. In a cotton bowl."

"This is the first great concert. Mine is Chicago."

"Chicago! Wow," he said, this was his first Owen Wilson wow of the day, two full syllables. "Do you know what Chicago songs I like? The one in the park."

"Saturday, in the park..."

"This is our day today! People are laughing and selling ice cream alone. Just like the way we saved it."

"Are you heading south?"

"It is. In fact, if we tell the truth, I'm reversing it. When I saw that line in Blueys, I panicked. So it became the story of Rashomon. First of all, you were scared. But now the fact is that I am in a panic. When I came to the same restaurant a few days ago, it was empty. But then it seemed that we were in a place like Hunter S. Thompson, with ghouls everywhere, this strange car The Charles Manson bus stopped."

"Hey! Yo!" I shouted.

He stared at me across the street and waved. I was talking on the phone with my wife and I apologized to her because she was yelling at the phone. I told her that I had to go now because Irving had just stopped his bicycle across the street. I will call her later.

"Hey! Yo!" he shouted.

What. ..? Who is screaming? Oh, wow, Ryan was yelling at someone on the phone. I want to know who it is. Man, I guess he is still very upset. Maybe hydration will help.

The nurse first inserted a needle into Owen's arm, and then inserted another into mine.

Irving is still trying to get rid of the cold, so we came to the Hydration Room, which is part of a small original store chain, where medical professionals provide you with intravenous fluids and infuse you with rejuvenating fluids and various vitamins and nutrients mixture. You will feel great afterwards. We lay on a comfortable recliner for about half an hour, letting fluid fill our blood vessels. We both spoke in a deep librarian tone. The question I asked was "Where did you shoot behind the enemy lines?" This made Owen talk about his underwater survival training for the film, which made him talk about officers and gentlemen ("the great water affairs"), which made him talk about Battle scene.

"That must be one of the best fighting scenes in the movie," he said of the 1982 quarrel between Richard Gere and Louis Gossett Jr. "Two great fighting scenes, because when he left the bar and the local guys started messing with him, it was not good."

"The top five fight scenes in the movie?"

Owen immediately said: "Well, I would definitely say officers and gentlemen. That counts as one. I guess Billy Jack is a great fighting scene. Have you seen Billy Jack movies? My God, I loved it when I was a kid. Those ones--"

The nurse came with a syringe and injected something into each of us. Owen smiled like a guy who just took drugs.

"Wow, this is a good thing. See you on the other side! Let's start!"

I asked the nurse what it was. "Vitamin B-12," she said.

"This may be another factor," he said. "We are in the top five, but we are a bit lazy. We get two or three, and then we move on."

We sat quietly for a few minutes, B-12 passed through us, and a relaxing song played through the speakers in the hydration room. The fluid in the IV bag was empty, and the nurse reappeared and disconnected us with great agility: the needle was pulled out, the gauze was firmly attached to the skin, the bag was removed from the hook, and the thread was neatly coiled.

"I think they just turned on the lights in the bar," Irving said. "'Wow, is it already 2:00?'" He shuffled back to the bathroom, and when he appeared again, the nurse handed him a small book and said proudly in her voice, "You came last time I forgot about this."

He took the book and stroked his jacket, like a smooth stone. It is called ten poems that change your life. Finally, he said:

"But I haven't been here for about two years," he said.

"We keep it for you."

He looked at me across the room with a naughty, gritted smile, and shook his head at the magic of all this.

I want to know if I do this. I think I know. Irving has used the term "magic realism" many times, which is a literary genre in which the author writes something unreal or surreal, as if it were absolutely real. Irving always seems to be looking for making reality look amazing. Or make the magic of life more real. Or something else.

Speaking of the comical plot of their new movie Marry me—the pop star pulls a stranger out of the crowd and marries him—Jennifer Lopez said of Irving’s performance, “He supports and opposes this. Everything is absurd," This is actually a good way to describe Irving. In fact, it accurately describes why he is so difficult to describe, even after a magical breakfast, cycling, and intravenous fluids. Stiller-he hired him for the 1996 "Informer", made more movies with Irving (14 years old) than anyone else, and had dinner with him a week after we met-told I, "His life is a bit mysterious in a way. I think it's mysterious. I don't think you can ever fully understand him."

Luke remembers that when Irving went to the military academy, this experience inspired what J. Lo was talking about: "After he was expelled from our high school, he went to the New Mexico Military Academy, and my father and I went to visit him. It was just The barren desert and the fortress outside are like the king of discipline to me. But when I see Owen there-the buzz, the uniform, his room and his lockers, and how they have to be straight Walking-he accepted it all. The last thing you think he will take. But I think there is too much material there. He was inspired by it."

Hampton Fancher wrote and directed The Minus Man — in which Fancher chose Owen as a serial killer after seeing Bottle Rocket — said: “He’s a comedian, just like Jimmy Stewart is Like a comedian. Only he is more funny than Jimmy Stewart. He is funny. He can tell a story, and it is often the secret to the opposite of things-death jokes."

Then he talked about the challenge of trying to capture the real Irving in the movie, which reminded me of Stiller's comment about it is impossible to really understand him. "His face has this Germanic quality," Fancher said, "like Oscar Werner or Dennis Hopper, this kind of purity. The Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca (Piero) della Francesca) painted this look. There is beauty. I tried to capture it-this was my main failure in Minus Man. I wanted to capture the creamy angelic thing on Owen’s face, like a little It's like a cat. I can't get it. I tried. He's great. He has a problem with his brain."

Camps for the homeless line some grid streets in Venice, California. Inside a blue camping tent on a block, an old woman shouted to a man in the tent next door: "Shut up. You are not my friend!"

Owen took a few steps and whispered: "Oh my God, no one wants to hear others say that. Take you back to middle school. "You are no longer my friend. "" He asked about my life, which has been very difficult recently. The world knows about his darkness because he is very famous. I told him something about me-the long-term sick boy at home. Irving learned about this from an article I wrote before; five months ago, My brother died suddenly and unexpectedly; raising a traumatized child is an impossible task.

"As a child, you will think about many things," he said. "Death—I came like this when I was about eleven. I don’t remember talking about it with my parents. Although I do remember telling my father once-I clearly remember the house Somewhere in the house—say, “I’m so worried,” and then see my father turn around and walk away and grab himself. I’m surprised to see this reaction. But who knows, maybe that’s what I said Part of the reason."

When we stepped on, the sidewalk was covered with overgrown gravel. I asked Owen how to get out of a dark place—how people did it, to be precise. He didn’t talk too much about his close contact with death, but he did tell me that after that Andrew lived with him in his house, got up with him every morning, and wrote some small schedules for each day, so that at the beginning of life It seems to be manageable and then, at some point after a long period of time, it is actually good.

A few weeks later, I recalled that incident. In an email about other things, Irving offered his views on life through the film: "Sometimes, life seems to be played by Gene Hackman in the Indians. Yes. Difficult but fair. His requirements will be high, but if you are a team and do your job well, things will be solved. It’s a good feeling. Things make sense. But of course life seems to sometimes Played by Tom Hardy in "Wild Hunter", a nightmare guy who wants to kill you, even if you have the upper hand, he will still whisper at the end,'This won't take your boy Bring it back, or your dad back, or any good times in your past. Leave it to him. When life is played by that person, you just have to hold on and wait for it to pass."

The restaurant we were going to appeared, an open door on the long wall with string lights inside, a warm welcome. A smile came up at the corner of Owen's mouth.

"I like this place," he said.

We were sitting in the immortal light of Santa Monica's evening, and there were plates of food scattered around the table—a remnant of zucchini, a slice of lime pie with spoon-shaped carvings up and down, and a quarter of a bottle of wine.

Owen looked at me coldly and asked, "Did you order that lime pie?"

I did it, I told him. His face brightened.

"I thought I imagined it that way. I thought I was just thinking, what could be more incredible now than this? I think I'm a bit like a mouth technician who throws it into Ryan's mouth." Please eat limes group. "Because it just - even in this twilight now, isn't it like we are in a hundred years of solitude? Are those guys not the masters of magic realism? Isn't there a famous Esquire story, new news? "Frank Sinatra has a cold"? Have you read that?"

"Of course," I said. "Maybe it's'Owen Wilson has a cold'!"

"When we sat down, we were not in the same place."

I looked at him. He has always tried to write my story, or at least describe an alternative story. Mine is the magazine profile. I hope there is something good and a little enlightening, but the magazine profile. Irving is after other things, something more charming or interesting. Something different, but something from a thousand years ago. I think he only likes a good story. Like to listen to them, that's why he asks so many questions. Like to tell them that he did better than anyone else. I like to play a role in it, whether it's about a story about a fucking family named Tenenbaums, about Starsky and his friend Hutch, or about an American magazine in France that employs a blonde travel writer and brings There are berets contrived.

He said that the best story in his life now is the one he tells to two little boys in pajamas, just like the way his father made up stories for him and Andrew and Luke in the past, in which there is often a character that often appears. , Named Crazy Maggie and her terrible and cruel laughter. "Sometimes telling these stories at night, you do feel a little proud of these people participating in this story! One of them even said,'Dad, you should do something about this. This is a very good story! This is about the post-world A small group of boys in the doomsday world, and a group of dogs-I play for my audience. There is a moment in the story, a girl that a boy likes, he sees her with another boy, and he thinks they are in hand Holding hands"-he speaks very slowly now, with his unique accent, the word hand is hee-"but they are just playing that game, do you know that game? You put your palm up and the other person Put their palms on top of you and you have to slap the upper hands very quickly. Children see from a distance and think they are holding hands, but this is actually a game. So sometimes, little things like this, In your opinion, this is a very good little story element. A good little detail."

The sun continues its retreat. Owen was sipping tea, legs stretched out, feet in leather shoes, ankles crossed.

"Maybe I should write it as a script," I joked. "The whole story."

Irving raised his eyebrows and said, "It might be better. Because then we can actually get into something we are talking about."

OWEN and RYAN sat at a round table on the edge of a large stone terrace with only a few tables. The cheque was in the wallet and was unpaid. There is a digital recording device on the table.

Although sometimes these things make people feel a little masturbating.

Really-a movie about a movie, or a writer about writing. But I've always liked what he said in "Heart of Darkness", "Everyone said,'Oh, this is just Francis; he will figure it out. Well, I am not! I won't figure it out! I failed!" What he said was that as an artist or a creative person, the thing you most want to be accused of is pretentiousness. Or as you say, masturbation. Same. But I just think that sometimes to do something-say something-you have to take the risk that someone else says, "Oh, that's kind of nonsense, what did that person do." Sometimes, you have to overcome that fear, and then Try to speak it.

Because yes-maybe that would be better.

Who is better to be closer to you?

A better story. I mean, this will not be a crisis for Esquire. If you say, "Look, we won't do this article, will you have trouble? We have to do another thing"? Can they find someone else to do the cover?

RYAN's expression shows that he realizes that OWEN is advising them to abandon this article altogether and instead write a real script.

I mean, I want to know if we can do both?

Isn't this what Esquire used to be? Who is the famous editor of Ali with arrows? [He gets closer and lowers his voice. ] Because maybe this is part of it: there is nothing on the tape. Because it is here. [Pointing to his heart. ]

Do you feel that I panic again today?

Well, when I saw you at the water replenishment station, you were yelling on the phone across the street. This makes me nervous. You are arguing with someone on the phone. I don't want to ask what happened, so I thought, let's give him an intravenous injection.

[Confused, tried to remember, then realized]

I was scolding you!

Yes! My wife and I had a pleasant conversation and then yelled hello to you!

I thought you were yelling at someone on the phone! Look, this is life. The "Gift of the Magician" situation. I think you are yelling at some poor subordinates who messed up the booking, but in fact you are just yelling at me cheerfully across the street.

Want to jump into the ocean in underwear? Look, I'm working hard again. set.

No, this is a good idea. Who knows, after I was strengthened by tea, this might be our end. It's a bit like going home. We go swimming and one of us keeps going. This is where the dramatic tension lies. This is not an existential, sad thing, but one person has just decided: I want to go to the horizon.

RYAN is sitting in the airport bar, drinking hibiscus water, eating cheeseburger, thinking about some interesting things and texting OWEN as a way to check in. He was typing on the phone, and a text bubble appeared on the screen:

The last thing I remember was that the IV entered my arm. ..

A few minutes later, OWEN wrote back:

Really? How are you? Do you at least remember our surfing? We let ol'man Pacific kneel to the ground last night. I still remember seeing your tearful face staring into the avalanche of white water and just smiling. You painted a large string of aloha in the middle of your back. When we arrived at Sloppy Huck's for the last call, it was gone.

I thought I was dreaming. Or did we have the same dream?

Maybe it’s like what the Aztecs said: "We come only to sleep/only to dream/this is not true, this is not true/we come to live on this earth"

Two weeks later. In the New York studio of a famous photographer, OWEN is changing the expensive clothes he wore for magazine shooting, which ended after a long afternoon.

Various assistants and production personnel are running around, dismantling equipment and packing clothes. OWEN checks the time-he is going to have dinner. He looks tired. He just flew from Los Angeles last night, and flew from Maui to Los Angeles the night before. At 7:00 tomorrow morning, he will fly to France to help promote "French Express" at the Cannes Film Festival. He is talking with RYAN.

When I was young, I wanted to know the cause of thunder——

An assistant poked his head in the door.

Owen, your car is downstairs.

He was late. He rushed over, tying one hand with a belt, and one foot on the heel of his shoe. RYAN hurried to the escalator. OWEN thanked the crew, and then applauded.

Suddenly the hold button on the elevator reached its limit and the door began to close without stopping.

Owen! It's closing soon

[Slow motion] Owen turned around and ran to the door, his golden mane fluttering behind him, with a belt around his waist, with firmness on his face, gritted his teeth, and walked towards glory. At the last second, before the door closed, he reached through the narrow opening and grabbed Ryan’s forearm with a hard grip—then Owen naturally opened the door and almost fell into the elevator, barely holding on. ​​To myself. Avoid collision with the back wall.

When the elevator descended, he stroked his hair with his hand, took a deep breath, and laughed. Then he stopped, raised his eyebrows, and smiled.

Well, this is our end.