Jason Schwartzman

By Aziz Ansari
Photography Nick Haymes

Jason Schwartzman was 18 years old when he made his first foray into acting. The film was 1998’sRushmore—Wes Anderson’s hipster-revered breakout project—and Schwartzman played the lead, Max Fischer, a charmingly awkward misfit teen with an unfortunate beret habit. It was a telling start.

In the years since this debut, Schwartzman has built a résumé that looks like it’s borrowedheavily from the “Likes” section of an impassioned film geek’s MySpace page: After Rushmore came Schwartzman’s cameo on Judd Apatow’s beloved television series, Freaks and Geeks. Then there was David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees (2004), Steve Martin’s Shopgirl (2005), his cousin Sofia -Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), and another Wes Anderson film—which Schwartzman actually co-wrote—The Darjeeling Limited (2007).

The 29-year-old Los Angeles native spends the majority of his time onscreen, acting . . . well, pretty tragic. This fall, the actor continues his examination of the psychology of the unfortunately weird takes a new turn. He’s starring in HBO’s newest original series, Bored to Death, based on a short story by Brooklyn writer Jonathan Ames. He also found the time to reunite with both Apatow, for Funny People, and Anderson, for the upcoming stop-motion adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Aziz Ansari, who appears alongside Schwartzman in Funny People, agreed to wake up in time for a 10:30 a.m. phone interview with the actor. It took place on Schwartzman’s 29th birthday.

Watch first trailer for Bored to Death