By EMILY CHRISTIANSON Special to The Daily Press
Owen Wilson has three basic rules for dating: “Fake it until you make it — that’s rule one, two and three,” he says.
A ladies’ man? Yes. A romantic? “That’s something ex-girlfriends (including Sheryl Crow, Gina Gershon and several, well … strippers) have never accused me of,” the chronic bachelor admits.
They probably never thought the Santa Monica resident, who recently told Playboy magazine he should have taken his relationship with Crow more seriously, would be ready to settle down either. But now he concedes, “I am 36 and you can’t stay at the party forever!”
Of course, you can always crash one. And that’s exactly what Wilson and co-star Vince Vaughn do in the new romantic comedy “Wedding Crashers”, which opened on Friday.
They play divorce mediators John Beckwith (Wilson) and Jeremy Klein (Vaughn) who spend their free time dropping in uninvited at strangers’ weddings trying to meet women … that is until John meets Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams) at the most exclusive event of the year.
Call it a case of art imitating life. “I definitely enjoy a good party, but I would be more likely to crash the Playboy Mansion than a wedding,” confesses the actor known for his surfer tan, crooked nose and disheveled hair. “Maybe I just think bigger than my character.”
Perhaps he’s right. The sexy southerner, who won a 2004 MTV Movie Award for the kiss he shared with Amy Smart and Carmen Electra in “Starsky and Hutch,” was living the ultimate playboy fantasy filming scenes surrounded by topless women.
“That was the only time that Owen showed up early,” Vaughn jokes.
Before dating celebrities and walking the red carpet, Wilson and his showbiz brothers Luke (younger) and Andrew (older) were keeping their mom, a photographer, and dad, an ad executive busy in Texas.
The comic actor got the boot from St. Mark’s Academy in Dallas his sophomore year and transferred to Thomas Jefferson School.
“I was cheating in geometry,” says the self-proclaimed troublemaker. “We stole the teacher’s edition book so I was handing in all these extra credit problems to make up for my bad test grades.”
Next, his parents sent him off to a New Mexico military academy to get him back on track. It worked. He eventually graduated and enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin, where he met his best friend, Wes Anderson.
“We were at school together in Austin,” Anderson told the BBC. “We exchanged short stories and started writing the script together for ‘Bottle Rocket.’ But I feel the best part of our collaboration is working with him on set as an actor.”
Although the low-budget production, starring Wilson and his two brothers, fell short financially, it was enough for the two writers to move on to more lucrative projects like “Rushmore” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” for which they received an Oscar nomination. Although the former roommates did not co-write Anderson’s latest film “The Life Aquatic” with Steve Zissou, Wilson did star in the movie alongside Bill Murray.
The radio voice for Heineken and Michelob Lite and a 2002 High Times magazine Stoner of the Year nominee for his performance in “Zoolander,” Wilson has collaborated on eight movies with pal Ben Stiller. They are now the leaders of Hollywood’s notorious Frat Pack (with Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and Jack Black), an homage to the hit comedy “Old School.”
“It’s not some grand design, it’s that these are the people that I think are funny and would like to work with,” he says of the label.
Next up for Wilson, “The Wendell Baker Story.” His brother Luke wrote, directed and starred in the film as an ex-con who lands a job at a retirement home. Andrew also directs and Wilson co-stars as head nurse.
“It’s OK to be directed by your older brother,” Wilson told the American Statesman. “I’m used to him bossing me around. But having your younger brother tell you what he thinks you need to do, that’s more difficult to swallow. But I managed to rise above it. I told Luke that if he had anything to say to me just say it to Andrew and let him tell me.”
Wilson admits that he and Luke, who were cast as the brothers Virgil and Turk in “Oceans Eleven,” but backed out to do “Royal Tenenbaums,” suffered from a bit of sibling rivalry growing up.
“There were a few cases of a girl whose number I had in my book, and then all of a sudden Luke was calling that girl,” he says. “But it was OK.”
They both agree there’s no fighting when it comes to career.
“It bothers me when people ask if Owen and I are competitive,” Luke told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not like ‘my rentals are higher, but you’re beating me at the box office’. We’re not the Sunshine Boys, but we love each other. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it was-n’t for him.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 16, 2005. Read the original PDF.