‘Paint’ Star Owen Wilson Talks Emulating Bob Ross in IFC Comedy, Finding Calmness in Crayons
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After starring in “Paint” as a Bob Ross-esque (but far more angry and tortured) paint instructor, Owen Wilson admits he’s warmed to finding his own sense of zen calm — not with watercolors and brushes, but with Crayolas.
“When my boys were little, at restaurants I’d give them crayons and try to calm them down, but I think that maybe adults should be doing that, too,” Wilson told Variety at the premiere of the IFC film at the Ace Hotel on Thursday. ”I don’t know why we ever stop doing that, because there is something really nice about trying to create something.”
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“I guess there’s that Picasso quote: ‘I want to spend the rest of my life learning to paint like a child,’” he mused. “Not worrying about anything and just expressing yourself — that feels good.”
Wilson’s character, Carl Nargle, is decidedly not feeling good after his longstanding niche — painting bucolic scenes on Vermont public television — and in turn his whole existence, is challenged by an upstart rival. With the retro-placid, afroed image of Ross, who died in 1995, having become pop culturally ubiquitous in recent years, adorning t-shirts and other merch, the actor said he relished luring in Ross adherents and flipping the script on the tranquil icon.
“Hopefully what people will appreciate and enjoy is the same thing that I did when I first read the script, and that was just how funny it is, and the idea of somebody who has not felt the need to change with the times, because everything’s going so perfect in his life,” Wilson explained. “We can all sort of get comfortable and complacent if things are going your way, and then all of a sudden, when things aren’t, that can be an upsetting thing. And so the way that [Carl] deals with that and processes that is funny, but it’s also kind of moving.”
While Wilson does sport a familiar-looking afro and wig, he said he didn’t set out to specifically emulate Ross’ serene vibe. “I’m not good at doing imitations, and so that was never really a possibility,” he laughs. “But certainly that quality that he had when you watched that show — and why people still do — is like a little spa treatment or something. You come out like, ‘Oh, I feel relaxed and I feel better.’”
Writer-director Brit McAdams had been working on tweaking the Ross-ian image for years before the late painter became a fixture of the current zeitgeist. McAdams was inspired to write the story after a stint working at VH-1 in his 20s exposed him to celebrities whose edgy behind-the-scenes behaviors were out of alignment with their affable public image. He wanted to explore the idea of fame and stagnant growth on a smaller, more absurdist stage.
“If you’re a PBS painter, you are the biggest of fish in the smallest of ponds, but you’re still the biggest fish — people have been telling you that you’re changing lives from age 22,” McAdams told Variety. “Would you ever change your own life? That’s where the idea came from: a Bob Ross-type guy, but what if he wasn’t using that power for good?”
“I just like the idea of this person who speaks softly and has such a power over people,” said McAdams. “And how much you could conceivably get trapped in that persona as you got older. And if the world’s changing and you’re not, what eventually you lose because you’re not changing.”
Over 25 years after his own breakout turn in “Bottle Rocket,” Wilson says he’s been enjoying his own ever-evolving career growth, particularly with a return trip to the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Mobius M. Mobius in the upcoming second season of “Loki.”
“I really loved working with Tom Hiddleston,” he said. “I always felt really comfortable coming up with stuff with him and how hard he worked, so I just enjoyed getting back doing stuff with Loki and my character Mobius. I really liked playing that character.”
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