David Letterman doesn’t want to be a movie star. He just wants to hang out with his friends.
The late-night legend joined his friend Richard Ayoade on stage at The Atlantic Festival on Thursday, where he reflected on learning that the British comedian and actor was set to join Letterman’s other good chum, Bill Murray, in the expansive ensemble cast of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.
Two of his besties sharing the screen, and more importantly, a set? There was only one reasonable response. “I say to Bill, I want to be in the movie.”
Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features
“In my dreams — me, Bill Murray, and Richard Ayoade — how can that not be a moment for the rest of your life?” Letterman explained. “I said to Bill, ‘Can you talk to your buddy Wes, and get me in the movie?’ This, by the way, is how I get work these days,” the former host and originator of The Late Show franchise joked.
Letterman even made sure to tailor his casting request to be as modest as possible. “I said to Bill, ‘I don’t want lines, I don’t want to be a problem, I don’t even want a dressing room. I want no makeup, I just want — ‘Who is that?’ I just wanted to be that guy, because it would get me there with you. I would love to see you work on this film with Bill Murray.”
Alas, it wasn’t to be. Letterman explained that his wife of 16 years, Regina Lasko, became “stricken” with Ménière’s disease, a chronic inner ear disorder that can cause hearing loss, vertigo, and tinnitus.
“She’s okay now, she’s stabilized now,” he explained, joking, “But geez, I resented that. So I don’t get to be in the movie with my good, good friends Richard Ayoade and Bill Murray.”
Letterman did not make the final cut of The Phoenician Scheme, Anderson’s 12th feature film as one of America’s most acclaimed directors. But it seemed the rest of Hollywood did, as the comic crime caper, in typical Andersonian fashion, enlisted the talents of a vast ensemble of stars, including Ayoade, Murray (who has appeared in 10 of Anderson’s films), Benicio del Toro, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, and more.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Letterman’s face is recognizable to anyone who has turned on the television in the past 40 years. But though his late-night tenure has made him a pop-culture fixture, he’s also appeared in numerous other films and TV series.
The 78-year-old Indianapolis native cameoed as himself in dozens of series over the years, from Murphy Brown to The Nanny to Seinfeld. But before he began his tenure on his self-titled late-night show in 1980, he appeared in the satiric comedy special Peeping Times as a fictional news presenter, and in the 1979 made-for-TV movie Fast Times, which took place behind the scenes at a fictional talk show.
You can watch Letterman’s full interview with Ayoade above.
