By Michael Idato

Owen Wilson as Jack in Secret Headquarters.Credit:Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

Owen Wilson is an unlikely superhero. Okay, he plays Mobius M Mobius in the Disney+ series Loki, but in truth his body of work — think The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and The French Dispatch (2021) — has an artful and slightly offbeat sensibility.

But every kid has a dream, right? Even 53-year-old Dallas-born kids. “For sure, there are things that you check off in that box of things that maybe, when you first started working in movies, you would’ve hoped to have done,” Wilson says.

That box of things? “Definitely playing a cowboy [which he did, in 2000’s Shanghai Noon]. And being in a space movie [1998’s Armageddon]. And finally getting a chance to be a superhero. I think we can call it a wrap. I did it.”

The last of those comes via Secret Headquarters, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, about a kid named Charlie Kincaid (Walker Scobell), who begins to suspect there might be more to his father than there seems. The clue? The giant batcave-like headquarters he discovers in the family’s basement.

Wilson says he was drawn to the fact Secret Headquarters is told from the point of view of the kids. From left: Keith L. Williams, Walker Scobell, Kezii Curtis, Momona Tamada and Abby James Witherspoon.Credit:Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

Growing up, Wilson was not a comic book kid, though he did like Spider-Man comics. And his brother, he recalls, was into Mad magazine. “But this whole proliferation of superhero movies that began, I guess, with the Batman, the Tim Burton one, it’s just been a genre that’s just been wildly embraced,” he says. “And I think the attraction with this story is that it is told from the point of view of the kids, which seems to be a fresh take.”

While the story of Secret Headquarters is writ large from the superhero playbook — and comes complete with a secret headquarters that could be the equal of the Adam West-era batcave — there are also tonal notes from a lot of 1980s-era teenage fantasy adventure films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies.

“I know that when I responded to the script, and you read a lot of things, and it’s rare, I feel like, for something to stand out where [I think], okay, I can kind of see this. It was just very easy, maybe because of those sorts of movies,” Wilson says.

“I could see it fitting into that with the dynamic between the kids and the first crush and your peer group, and I feel like that’s something that, even as an adult, you never quite forget,” Wilson adds.

As an actor, it’s fun to play scenes where there’s a little bit of conflict. And there certainly was between Jack and Charlie.

One of the most genre-specific things about superhero movies is the physicality of costume. Lynda Carter in the 1970s television adaptation of Wonder Woman, and Christopher Reeve, in the 1980s film adaptation of the Superman comics, both set a gold standard for the arched-spine, hands-on-hips stance most associated with comic book heroes.

Charlie (Walker Scobell) begins to suspect there might be more to his father (Owen Wilson) than there seems in Secret Headquarters.Credit:Hopper Stone

Wilson was pleased with his suit. “I thought they did a pretty good job, and I know that as soon as I put it on and walked on set, maybe the directors had told everybody to really compliment me a lot, but it seemed like I was getting a lot of positive feedback when I had it on,” he says, laughing.

As a superhero, Jack Kincaid’s alter-ego seems to have echoes of Iron-Man or Green Lantern, a combination perhaps of the structure of his costume, which feels a little Iron-Man-like, and the nature of his mission, an ordinary man empowered by alien technology to defend and protect Earth.

“I felt the essence of this guy was his relationship with his son, and that kind of father-son dynamic, where it doesn’t matter if you’re excused for not being at the baseball game, it’s because you’re off saving the world,” Wilson says.

“It’s still probably a little bit frustrating, as it is for his son, Charlie. So that stuff, I felt, was poignant. And then also, as an actor, it’s fun to play scenes where there’s a little bit of conflict. And there certainly was between Jack and Charlie.”

Working with a younger cast — Scobell, Williams, Tamada and others — meant that as an adult actor, he approached the work with a gentle step in his stride. Particularly as the younger actors have to carry a significant part of the film on their own.

Wilson says he admires the approach of Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced Secret Headquarters.Credit:Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

“Walker, he’s in practically every scene of the movie, so I had a much easier job,” says Wilson.

“I think he really enjoyed the group of kids that he was acting with. So when I was in scenes with all of them, I was conscious of that feeling that you maybe have sometimes, as a parent, where you’re a bit of an outsider to the group of kids.

“And you remember that when you’re with your friends, your parents aren’t quite on the same wavelength. That stuff’s easy to play and fun to play.”

So as a kid who once had a dream of playing a cowboy, an astronaut and a superhero, it is curious to note the last two of those three came to him from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced a slew of blockbusters including Top Gun, Black Hawk Down and Pirates of the Caribbean, and also produced Secret Headquarters.

It’s a debt that Wilson says he acknowledges, and also that Bruckheimer, contrary to Hollywood cliches, is a gentle and generous man. “I think that there’s the cliche of a Hollywood producer, kind of loud, maybe even cigar smoking. And he couldn’t be further from that. He’s a very soft-spoken person,” Wilson says.

“And even with all the success he’s had, he was there on the set every day and trying to help in whatever way he could to support the directors. I just admire that. It’s nice to see that that personality type can have so much success in Hollywood.”

Secret Headquarters is on Paramount+.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Most Viewed in Culture

Source: Read Full Article