Asteroid City: Why Maya Hawke & Rupert Friend's Onscreen Romance Is Unique - Exclusive Interview

"Asteroid City" is another metaphysical romp from auteur Wes Anderson. The film follows disparate families who congregate in the titular city for the Junior Stargazer convention, only to have their worlds flipped upside down. In that vein, the film explores what humanity does when they reach the limits of their knowledge, and as seems to be the case, one answer is to find comfort in the love of another. 

Various relationships form throughout the movie. Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) and Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) have something between them, and their children — Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and Dinah (Grace Edwards) — also give into their feelings for one another. But one of the most intriguing pairings to come to the surface in "Asteroid City" is that between June Douglas (Maya Hawke), a teacher, and Montana (Rupert Friend), a singing cowboy. 

The two seem to come from very different paths in life, but a romance soon develops. In an exclusive interview with Looper, Maya Hawke and Rupert Friend discuss how they viewed their characters in relation to each other and what the future could theoretically hold for the pair. 

Your characters have an interesting relationship in the film. How do you think their dynamic mirrors or plays off of some of the other blossoming romances that occur throughout the story?

Maya Hawke: You have relationships that are ending in the real world.

Rupert Friend: Yeah.

Hawke: There's Scarlett and Jason's.

Friend: [There's] Jake's budding romance.

Hawke: That one goes the best, I think.

Friend: That at least they get to kiss.

Hawke: They get to kiss.

Friend: Which is pretty great.

Hawke: I guess ... Ours has a flourish of optimism in it a little more like the kids, but with this guardedness of a grownup. We have [these] grownup walls up, or at least June does, and there's an impossible romance where we come from such different places when quarantine lifts. Who knows how we could make it work?

Friend: Which is really cool. One of the things that runs through the film is the idea of people from completely disparate worlds, literally in some cases, and what happens when they're thrown together and forced to get along for however long. It's a very different way of thinking about it than, "So and so lives near me," or is basically the easy thing. It's the [idea of] "What if you take the two opposites and throw them together and see what happens?"

How long did it take you to nail down the dance your characters do toward the end of the film?

Hawke: I don't think we nailed it down ever.

Friend: I wouldn't say we nailed it. We gave it our best shot. We didn't have any rehearsal for that and we didn't have a choreographer. That wasn't really a plan. We just did it.

Hawke: He just said "go."

Friend: Yeah. He said "go" and then he adjusted to the camera and that was it. It was very quick.

You mentioned this, but with everyone leaving Asteroid City at the end, what do you think is next in store for your characters?

Hawke: Wes had big dreams about it that we shouldn't reveal.

Friend: That's true, because he may well act on them.

Hawke: He may well.

Friend: Then the surprise will be spoiled.

"Asteroid City" is currently playing in Los Angeles and New York City and comes out in theaters nationwide on June 23.

This interview has been edited for clarity.