The concept of a self-reliant solitary figure “working hard toward a singular goal” appeals to the actor Luke Wilson.
“That’s kind of my idea of being a hero,” he said during a video interview.
It was mid-November, and he was doing publicity for “No Good Deed,” a dark comedy on Netflix, set to begin streaming Thursday, in which he plays a failed soap star who’s anything but self-reliant. The character is ensnared in what Wilson, 53, describes as a “Svengali-type relationship” with a micromanaging wife.
“He’s not very intelligent. We probably have that in common,” he joked, before singing the praises of a few noted individualists, including those he’s watched onscreen or onstage, those he’s read about, and one he’s known all his life. These are edited excerpts.
My Mother’s Photography
When I was growing up, she always took pictures, always had a Nikon. In the late ’70s, she went to work for Richard Avedon. From there, she started to publish her own books. Her last book, “The Writers,” I think she worked on for 12 years. She went all over the world, from Mexico to Scotland, and got all these incredible writers. It was interesting how many didn’t want their picture taken, and she kept at them. I admire how hard she worked.
Blue Jays
I’m from Dallas. In the fall, you hear blue jays, and it always means the heat is over, the cool weather’s coming and it’s football season leading into the holidays. I was just back home, walking around the little house that my dad used as an office and, sure enough, I heard some blue jays, and that really moved me.
‘Off to the Side’ by Jim Harrison
A great book about a writer and about the craft. I’ve found a first edition and a signed copy. I just feel a connection to this guy. He was in that hard-drinking, ’70s novelist/poet group that came out of Key West. There was something kind of gentle and poetic about them, even though they were such hard-living guys.
‘Shepard & Dark’
It’s a documentary about Sam Shepard and his best friend, Johnny Dark. It seems like it’s about brothers, which, of course, I can relate to. They’d kept up this correspondence through the ’70s into the 2000s, while both their lives were going through all these changes. Shepard was becoming a celebrated playwright, then actor, and Dark was this guy that was happy to kind of live in the shadows. It doesn’t end with two friends clasping hands — it ends with a sad fissure or kind of break.
Trains
There’s a train ride going through a part of Texas where you get into these gently rolling hills, you cross rivers, you see some beautiful old ranches and some abandoned homesteads that kind of break your heart. I’ve really gotten to love this ride. And whenever I go to Europe, I’m excited to get on a train. It seems so unbelievable that you can go from London to Paris.
Character Actors
I’ve always loved them, even before I knew what they were. You’d just see this or that face start showing up again. Harry Dean Stanton, Seymour Cassel and Ben Johnson — to me, these are the actors that keep movies moving. They’re almost like stuntmen: dependable, unsung heroes. If being a movie star is being a novel, then the character actor’s a short story, which can be much more effective.
Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson
They did a tour of Triple-A ballparks in the early 2000s. I organized a whole trip. My brother Andrew and I went and saw those guys in Madison, Wis.; Rochester, Minn.; Des Moines, Iowa; Oklahoma City; and Lincoln, Neb. We had a rental car and went to each spot. That’s become one of the things in our life we’ll never forget. It was a magical tour and time.
Sam Wasson
My favorite movie of all time is “Chinatown.” I turned around one time and this book by Sam Wasson was coming out, “The Big Goodbye,” all about “Chinatown.” It was like heaven to me. Last year, I heard he was doing a reading at a bookstore. I went, and he was everything that you’d hope a person would be — energetic, funny and bright.
Satellite Radio
The Elvis channel, the Grateful Dead channel, Tom Petty has a station, music from the ’40s. I’ll hear songs I haven’t heard since I was in the car with my dad. Imagine hearing a song that’s like it’s been chipped out of a block of ice.
‘City’ by Michael Heizer
It’s this thing he built out in the middle of nowhere in Nevada that’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen in person. It’s this modern concrete formation, like foundations for buildings that you don’t know if they’ve been abandoned or if they’re just beginning. It seems like something he just did for himself. There’s something about that kind of work that I find inspiring.
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