“The Phoenician Scheme”, interview with actors Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera

Wes Anderson is back in Cannes Competition for the fourth time with"The Phoenician Scheme". His first time was in 2012 with "Moonrise Kingdom", then there was "The French Dispatch" and finally, two years ago, Asteroid city. "The Phoenician Scheme", as every Anderson’s film, can count on a numerous cast led by Benicio Del Toro in the role of “Zsa-Zsa” Korda, one of the richest men in Europe and including newcomers Mia Threapleton as Korda’s nun daughter Liesl and Michael Cera as the Norwegian entomologist Bjorn. Returning on a Wes Anderson’s film set are, among others, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Ayoade, Bill Murray and Rupert Friend. As he did in the past, with The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson goes back to exploring family ties, now from a father’s point of view as he tells a story of a father and a daughter who actually learn to build a relationship, how to consider each other “family”. In this family, as confirmed by Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera, enters Bjorn and they form an unusual trio. About the role of protagonist Zsa-Zsa” Korda, Anderson wrote: “Del Toro was the only actor I ever imagined the part, at least in the modern era. The kind of character who might have been played by Anthony Quinn, or maybe Lino Ventura, or Jean Gabin." Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera comment the vintage look of this film that might have been made in Hollywood’s old era.