In addition to his diorama-like sets, his meticulously crafted soundtracks, and the curiously quotable idiosyncratic dialogue, one of Wes Anderson’s most beloved traits is undoubtedly his ability to consistently form some of the most impressive ensembles in all of Hollywood — often using many of the same returning players. Unlike many directors, he has never made a film after his debut 1996 debut Bottle Rocket that didn’t have at least two actors he has worked with already. Every time he releases a new movie, one of the best parts of watching it in a theater is hearing the audience’s collective joy in response to one of the regular players popping up, even if it’s Jeff Goldblum in a crappy alien suit for 5 seconds.
Anderson filmography is filled with all sorts of visual treats and easter eggs, and his call sheets are usually no different. He loves to name characters after actors who have starred in his films, such as Owen Wilson’s Dignan in Bottle Rocket (named after Stephen Dignan) and Willem Dafoe’s Salzburg Keitel in Asteroid City (named after Harvey Keitel). He’s a master of casting against type, turning action stars like Bruce Willis and serious heavyweight thespians like Gene Hackman into characters that are impish, whimsical and often pathetic.
As one of the most distinctive voices in modern cinema, Wes Anderson’s usage of actors has proven to be one of his most interesting and entertaining tools. Let’s take a look at some of his recurring favorites, shall we?
Rules for Inclusion
I’m only counting feature films here, so none of Anderson’s commercials or short films are on part of the list, including the new Roald Dahl short films for Netflix. Besides, I believe the only returning players in those are Ralph Fiennes and Rupert Friend, who have previously starred in one and two Wes Anderson films, respectively.
We’re only looking at actors who have appeared in two or more films. Every actor is listed in alphabetical order (by first name) within their respective sections, to keep it consistent with the data visualizations below. The names of each actor are links to their page on IMDB. In the future, whenever Wes Anderson releases another feature-length film (which is sure to have some returning players), I will update the list and visualizations in this article.
Nine Films
Bill Murray — Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021). Steve Carrell’s part of the motel manager in Asteroid City (2018) was reportedly originally written for Murray, but he caught COVID-19 just 4 days before filming began, leading to a last-minute recast. However, Anderson did manage to work Murray into some promo material for the film which created a backstory for a fictional actor who was cut from the movie.
Seven Films
Owen Wilson — Bottle Rocket (1996), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021). Wilson also briefly appears in a photograph in Rushmore (1998), which would make eight films if you decided to count it. Wilson also has screenplay credits on Anderson’s first three films, as well as the original Bottle Rocket short from 1993, which was his official acting debut.
Jason Schwartzman — Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023). Schwartzman has also worked on the scripts for three of Anderson’s films, with a screenplay credit on The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and story credits on Isle of Dogs (2018) and The French Dispatch (2021).
Five Films
Adrien Brody — The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Bob Balaban — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Edward Norton — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Eric Chase Anderson — Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Tilda Swinton — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Wallace Wolodarsky — Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021)
Willem Dafoe — The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Four Films
Anjelica Huston — The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), narrator for The French Dispatch (2021). Huston is also credited as appearing in Isle of Dogs (2018) as ‘Mute Poodle’. Apparently she had personally asked Anderson to put her in the film as a poodle, but he never figured out a way to actually write any meaningful dialogue for the character. Hopefully she still got paid for the ‘role’. If you were to include this, she would have five films in total.
Fisher Stevens — The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Jeff Goldblum — The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018), Asteroid City (2023)
Kumar Pallana — Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Darjeeling Limited (2007). The late Kumar Pallana was a celebrated character actor, as well as the father of Dipak Pallana (sometimes credited as Deepak, see below under Three Films), who appeared in the first three Wes Anderson films along with Kumar.
Larry Pine — The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021)
Three Films
Andrew Wilson — Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Dipak (Deepak) Pallana — Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Frances McDormand — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021)
Harvey Keitel — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018)
Liev Schrieber — Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Luke Wilson — Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Seymour Cassell — Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Stephen Dignan — Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Tony Revolori — Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Waris Ahluwalia — The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Two Films
Bryan Cranston — Isle of Dogs (2018), Asteroid City (2023)
F. Murray Abraham — Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Isle of Dogs (2018)
Jeffrey Wright — The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Leá Seydoux — The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021)
Michael Gambon — The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Roman Coppola — Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Isle of Dogs (2018). Roman is the son of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, brother of director Sofia Coppola, and cousin of actor Nicolas Cage. He is currently serving as the president of American Zoetrope, the film production company founded by his father and George Lucas. In addition to his voice acting roles, Coppola has a long history of collaborations behind the camera with Anderson, going back to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), which he was the second unit director on. He has writing or story credits on five films, more than any other Anderson co-writer: The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Isle of Dogs (2018), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023). In addition to writing those films, he also produced The Darjeeling Limited (2007), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023).
Rupert Friend — The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023)
Scarlett Johansson — Isle of Dogs (2018), Asteroid City (2023)
Saoirse Ronan — The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021)
Seu Jorge — The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Asteroid City (2023). Jorge also famously performed all the French covers of David Bowie Songs in Life Aquatic, which have gone on to have a life of their own.
Other Frequent Collaborators
Alexandre Desplat — 2-time Oscar-winner Alexandre Desplat has scored every Wes Anderson film since Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), five in total. He has been nominated for an Oscar for three of those scores, and won one for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
Mark Mothersbaugh — Mothersbaugh was the composer on Anderson’s first four movies. The first Wes Anderson film to not feature an original score by Mothersbaugh was The Darjeeling Limited (2007), which notably does not feature a traditional composer, entirely relying on pre-existing recordings. After that, Alexandre Desplat has composed all the scores for every one of Anderson’s films (see above).
Noah Baumbach — Baumbach co-wrote the screenplays for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Anderson also served as a producer on Baumbach’s Oscar-nominated film The Squid and the Whale (2005).
Robert D. Yeoman — Yeoman has served as the director of photography on every live-action Wes Anderson project, including his short films.
Roman Coppola — See above for more details in the Two Films section.
Up Next
What’s your favorite performance in a Wes Anderson film? Sound off in the comments.
If you enjoyed this, make sure to clap and subscribe! Feel free to download and share any of the graphics from this article, but I would appreciate if you could link back to here. Coming Soon: the most common collaborators of directors John Carpenter and Christopher Nolan!
