Half-Assed Internet Research
The research covers locations, literary and film influences, announcer voices, cast scheduling, Hackman's behavior, Bill Murray, the real house, period products, and Margot's cigarettes.
In the discussion (17)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:46Read transcript
- The address 111 Archer is a real Harlem location near 144th Street.
- Royal's unnamed hotel is represented by the Waldorf Astoria.
- The film presents itself as an adaptation of a book that never existed, including visible page turns.
- The discussion cites Louis Malle, the French New Wave, and Orson Wells among the film's influences; other names in the segment are sensitive to transcription errors.
- The Magnificent Ambersons is identified as an especially strong influence on The Royal Tenenbaums.
- Wes Anderson and Andrew Wilson voiced the announcers during Richie's tennis collapse.
- An internet claim says Danny Glover, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson declined Ocean's Eleven roles to appear in this film; the speaker explicitly labels the claim uncertain.
- The shoot was arranged around the cast's limited availability.
- Gene Hackman was reportedly combative on set, with a possibly apocryphal story that Bill Murray confronted him.
- Bill Murray's small performance is praised for understanding Anderson's tone and elevating limited screen time.
- Murray is described as difficult to contact because he works without a conventional agent.
- The production found the real house after foreclosure and rented it before the buyer renovated it.
- The reported rent equaled what the buyer had paid for the house.
- Recognizable New York places and real products remain visible even inside the film's carefully designed world.
- Chas's office uses real iMacs, and Royal shoplifts gummy bears rather than genericized products.
- Margot's cigarette brand is reported as an Irish brand discontinued in the late 1970s or 1980s.
- The participants joke that Margot's brief smoking style anticipates vaping.