Wes Anderson's world: His recurring cast

OWEN WILSON

Owen Wilson, who has appeared in six of Anderson's feature-length films, has known the director since college. According to Matt Zoller Seitz, author of "The Wes Anderson Collection," the two met at a playwriting class at the University of Texas. "We were signing up for classes and he started asking me to help him figure out what he should do, as if we knew each other. As if we had ever spoken before or knew each other's names," Anderson said. "I almost feel like he was taking it for granted that if we didn't know each other yet, soon we would."

Wilson's first acting credit, "Bottle Rocket," was also Anderson's directorial debut. In the crime film he plays a tenacious Texan set on completing a heist with his ill-conceived plan.

The actor worked with Anderson on and off the screen; he co-wrote "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," which was nominated for an original screenplay Oscar.

JASON SCHWARTZMAN

Jason Schwartzman began his acting career when he was 17 years old, as the protagonist in Anderson's "Rushmore." He told The Times in 2010 about the serendipity: "I was at a party and there was a casting director and she said, 'Excuse me, are you an actor?' I said no. 'Well, I'm casting a movie for a gentleman named Wes Anderson.' And thus began this process of auditioning for 'Rushmore.'" The young Schwartzman, who had writing aspirations and no prior acting experience besides an unsuccessful audition for a school production, was unsure he'd land a role he had come to love. "It was the first script I ever read and I instantly felt, 'This is what I find funny. Whoever gets this is going to have a great time.'"

Years later, Schwartzman joined Anderson to cowrite and star in "The Darjeeling Limited," about the reunion of three estranged brothers in India. He has continued to work with the director, appearing in a total of five feature films and two shorts — one a prologue to "The Darjeeling Limited" and the other a critically acclaimed piece sponsored by fashion house Prada.

ADRIEN BRODY

Adrien Brody first stepped onto Anderson's set for "The Darjeeling Limited" alongside Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, two actors who tote long histories with the director. "It was like a theater company," Brody told About.com. "I felt like being a part of that was a gift, because they already have their routine. They already have their way of working." Anderson said he wrote Brody's role (the middle of three brothers who have grown apart since their father's funeral) with the actor in mind.

In "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Brody portrays Dmitri, the mustachioed son of a wealthy hotel patron who passes away during the last night of her stay. He also made a brief cameo in "Fantastic Mr. Fox," voicing the tiny field mouse.

ANJELICA HUSTON

Anjelica Huston has oft been tapped to fill the complex matriarchal roles in Anderson's works. "I like roles with a bit of an edge. For that reason I am well suited to Wes' ethos," she told OutNow.CH in 2005. "I like to call it 'Wesworld.' Wes creates his own universe. He is very specific. It's a lovely thing to enter."

Fun fact from "The Royal Tenenbaums" press kit: Anderson sent Huston photos of his own mother, Texas Anderson, in preparation for playing Etheline Tenenbaum. "He even produced his mother's old eyeglasses for the early scenes," Huston quipped. "I asked him, 'Wes, am I playing your mother?' I think he was astonished by that idea."

WILLEM DAFOE

Willem Dafoe has made an impressionable mark in Anderson's filmography, dropping his typically dramatic air to play the adoring Klaus Daimler in "The Life Aquatic," voicing the slinky, Southern rat in "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and embodying a cold-blooded assassin in "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

In a 2012 conversation between Anderson and Dafoe, the director revealed that Dafoe's work on "The Life Aquatic" influenced his future productions. "You were so engaged; you were just interested in staying in it — that was happening on a shot-by-shot basis and your character ended up being much fuller," he said. "After we finished that movie I decided I never wanted to do another movie with a trailer parked anywhere near it. I don’t want anybody to have anywhere they could possibly go to, largely because you never went to your trailer and that fed into the movie."

LUKE WILSON

Like his brother, Owen, Luke Wilson scored his first film credit with "Bottle Rocket." The movie was first released as a 13-minute short in 1994, then expanded to a full-length feature two years later.

In 2012, the actor told moviefone.com he was proudest of his work on "The Royal Tenenbaums." "To be in Manhattan, making a totally different kind of movie — not kid-related or juvenile, not about fumbling criminals or a crazy kid — to be doing a more mature movie definitely felt like things were ramping up," he said.

TILDA SWINTON

Tilda Swinton may have undergone the most physical change for Wes Anderson films. With her wisped, white coif, speckled skin and cloudy eyes, the actress looks nearly unrecognizable as the ill-fated Madame D. in "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

Like many of the director's other cast members, Swinton thinks rather fondly of working within the specificity of Anderson's colorful landscapes and lush story lines. "I just long for Wes Anderson's films to come out," she said in a promotional interview for "Grand Budapest." "Even better than being on the cinema is being on a Wes Anderson set."

JEFF GOLDBLUM

Jeff Goldblum has contributed to two Anderson flicks, first as the technologically savvy, wealthy rival of a vengeful oceanographer in "The Life Aquatic," second as a deputy in the Eastern European period piece "The Grand Budapest Hotel."

Goldblum, who has commented approvingly on the meticulous nature of Anderson's screenplays, says that the characters are people he's eager to portray. "For me, they're just for my taste, interesting, nonformulaic, not the expected thing, complicated, surprising in what they say and what they wear," he said in a 2004 interview with CHUD.com.

EDWARD NORTON

Edward Norton is a more recent member of Anderson's surrogate actor family, entering the director's world in very short khakis as a Boy Scout leader in "Moonrise Kingdom" in 2012. The two had started a correspondence in 1998, after the release of "Rushmore." "I wrote him a letter after I saw 'Rushmore' that was just full of appreciation for that film," Norton recounted on the set of "Moonrise," adding that he took the offer for his role even before reading the script. "It's one of those things .... You hope and wait, and then something comes together."

MICHAEL GAMBON

Irish-born actor Michael Gambon has played two of Anderson's characters: oceanographer Steve Zissou's financier in "The Life Aquatic" and the ruthless apple and turkey farmer in "Fantastic Mr. Fox."