Jason Schwartzman: The best of both worlds

MANILA, Philippines - Jason Schwartzman thinks he was born under a lucky star. Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle and Nicolas Cage and Sophia Coppola are his cousins.

“Mine is an incredible family of amazing artists,” Jason gushes over the phone. “It’s an advantage because it’s so nice to have family members you can share things with. A lot of people grow up in families where they’re the only ones interested in art. My family has a lot of interesting people I can talk to and ask advice from.”

Pedigree, even of the Hollywood kind, however, can only get you so far. Jason’s film and music credits show that an impressive family name is not his sole claim to fame.

He entered the acting scene with guns blazing, as an eccentric high school sophomore in 1999’s acclaimed comedy Rushmore. The then newcomer made critics sit up and notice at once. The Chicago Film Critics nominated him Most Promising Actor for his take on the Max Fischer character.

The International Press Academy nominated him for a Satellite Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical. Schwartzman made his writing debut in The Darjeeling Limited which he wrote with Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson.

Even a member of Hollywood film royalty however, has to work hard for the job. And so Jason practically had to go after the role of the fictional Jonathan Ames, lead character of the new offbeat HBO Original Series Bored to Death.

Jason fell in love with the private detective character in the series at first read (the movie is based on a book by the real Jonathan Ames).

“Jonathan Ames is an incredible novelist with many incredible books. I was given a Jonathan Ames book called Wake Up Sir! by a friend. I was instantly in love with the writing,” says Jason.

Two years later, when he got his favorite writer’s e-mail, Jason and Jonathan started warming up to each other. They agreed to meet over coffee in Los Angeles, where Jason found out that Jonathan was about to talk to HBO executives who wanted to shoot his short story, Bored to Death (it premiered on HBO Signature last Feb. 7 at 9 p.m.).

“My heart jumped out of my body,” recalls Jason. “The role of a private detective is what I want to do. A private detective gets to live a double life. So I e-mailed Jonathan and told him I want to be part of that.”

It’s been one hell of an experience for him since. Jason ticks off the perks working with Ted Danson in the series brings: “When he walks into the set, he makes everyone happy. He’s very joyous. He’s hardworking and makes everyone around him work harder.”

Still, nothing beats playing Jonathan Ames the character where Jason is concerned. He tells you the private detective is charming in his innocence and bohemian ways.

“He sees the world as different and beautiful,” observes Jason. “My character can relate to the guys he’s pursuing. He‘s broken-hearted and generally so are the criminals.”

In real life, Jason is hardly broken-hearted. He is married to long-time girlfriend Brady Cunningham. And when he needs time to be alone, all he has to do is pound on his drums or work on his music.

He used to play drums for the Los Angeles band Phantom Planet and gone on tour with Incubus as part of a band. He has released albums and one of his songs, Summer Day, was featured in the original soundtrack of Spiderman 3.

“Music is very solitary. It’s like meditation,” he tells you what high he gets from his other passion.

 Music allows him to be on his own; the movies brings out the team player in him.

“One balances the other,” he beams.

The guy has the best of both worlds. And he can’t be any happier.