Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is one of the most heartwarming coming-of-age movies in recent memory. The writer-director made the film as a nostalgic memory of young love. This isn’t a realistic portrayal of being in love when you’re a kid. Rather, it’s a visual representation of how it feels to be young and in love. It plays like a childhood fantasy.
As with all of Anderson’s meticulously crafted films, what with all their symmetrical framing and painting-like composition and carefully choreographed camera movements, Moonrise Kingdom had a tricky production process. So, here are 10 interesting facts about the making of Moonrise Kingdom.
The Dance Scene Was Filmed Last
The dance scene on the beach was intentionally saved until the end of filming. Wes Anderson wanted to make sure that his two leads, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, were comfortable enough around each other to dance uninhibitedly.
This scene was shot on a closed set. Only Gilman, Hayward, Anderson, and the camera operator were allowed on the set so that the two actors wouldn’t get self-conscious.
Wes Anderson Struggled With The Script For A Year Before Asking Roman Coppola For Help
Roman Coppola is credited as a co-writer alongside Wes Anderson on Moonrise Kingdom. Anderson began writing the movie as a solo effort and struggled with the script for a year. At the end of the year, he only had 15 pages finished. So, he asked Coppola—with whom he’d worked on The Darjeeling Limited (perhaps Anderson’s most underrated film)—if he’d write it with him. After Coppola came aboard, they finished the script in a month.
The Original Script Explained What Happened To Sam’s Parents
The screenplay for Moonrise Kingdom went through various changes on its way to the screen. In the original script, the fate of Sam’s parents was explained: they were hit by a drunk truck driver. However, this revelation didn’t make it to the final cut of the movie, probably because it’s super dark for the generally lighthearted story.
Kara Hayward Kept The Kitten From The Movie
Moonrise Kingdom marked the first big-screen appearances of its two young leads, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Hayward applied her own makeup for every scene. At the end of shooting, Hayward was allowed to keep the kitten that her character Suzy owns in the movie.
Jared Gilman got to keep a souvenir from filming, as well—one that came with a lot less responsibility than Hayward’s souvenir: Sam’s backpack.
Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman Were Offered the Role of Social Services
The role of Social Services was offered to Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons, who both turned it down, before the role was changed to female and given to Tilda Swinton.
The cast of Moonrise Kingdom contains a few of Wes Anderson’s regular collaborators, like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, and also features the first appearances in an Anderson movie by Harvey Keitel and Edward Norton, who would go on to reunite with the director on future projects. This was the first Wes Anderson movie to have no involvement from Owen Wilson.
The 1965 Setting Was Chosen At Random
According to Wes Anderson, the 1965 period setting of Moonrise Kingdom was chosen at random. However, he did come to find a thematic link between that year and the story. The mid-60s fits the idea of the Scouts being a traditional American institution, and it also gave Anderson the chance to take visual influence from the work of Norman Rockwell.
Anderson was also influenced by movies about young love and juvenile delinquency by directors like François Truffaut and Ken Loach, including The 400 Blows, A Little Romance, Black Jack, Small Change, and Melody (in fact, Anderson said that Moonrise Kingdom was basically his remake of Melody).
Sam And Suzy’s First Kiss Wasn’t Rehearsed To Maintain Spontaneity
Although Wes Anderson usually undergoes extensive rehearsals with his actors, he decided not to have the actors rehearse Sam and Suzy’s first kiss (which was also Jared Gilman’s first kiss). This was to maintain the spontaneity. If it had been rehearsed, then it wouldn’t look like a first kiss—it would just look like a kiss between two people who’d already kissed each other a bunch of times.
Lucas Hedges Initially Auditioned To Play Sam
Wes Anderson auditioned tons of young actors for the roles of Sam and Suzy and put the shortlisted candidates through a few rounds of auditioning to make sure he got the perfect kids to play those roles.
One of the actors up for the role of Sam, Lucas Hedges, wasn’t right to play Sam, but he did impress Anderson so much that the director still wanted to give him a major role in the film. So, he cast him to play Redford instead.
The First Location Scout Was Done On Google Earth
For the first scout to find filming locations for the production of Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson used Google Earth to look for a locale where the crew could find both open spaces of wilderness and the perfect house for Suzy to live in. He looked at places in Michigan, New England, and Canada. The team also looked at the Thousand Islands and Cumberland Island.
The Scout camp set was dressed with props borrowed from Camp Yawgoog, a real Scout camp in Rhode Island, which had served as the primary inspiration for the look of the sets.
A Lot Of Scenes Came From The Writers’ Own Childhood Experiences
A lot of scenes in Moonrise Kingdom were taken from the childhood experiences of writers Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. The scene in which Suzy finds a pamphlet called “Coping with a Troubled Child” among her parents’ belongings was inspired by Anderson finding a similar pamphlet among his own parents’ stuff. He said he immediately knew that he was the “troubled child,” even though it hypothetically could’ve been someone else.
Also, Laura Bishop yelling at her family through a bullhorn was taken from Coppola’s childhood. His mother, Eleanor Coppola, used to use a bullhorn in the same manner.
