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Movies & TV

12th Jun 2023

Wes Anderson doesn’t like people sending him TikToks copying his style

Simon Kelly

Wes Anderson TikTok trend

The filmmaker’s distinct style is all over the app.

TikTok trends have a habit of getting out of hand. With the popular social media app storming the world over the past few years, pretty much every niche has been picked clean for content. Basically, nothing and nobody is safe.

Not even acclaimed director Wes Anderson, who is one of the latest subjects of TikTok replication. Over the past few months, large numbers of people have been attempting to clone his visually striking style on the app for what’s being called the “Wes Anderson Challenge.”

The videos usually consist of someone looking deadpan directly at the camera, with pastel colours and quirky music playing in the background.

@avawillyums With a good imagination, everything is symmetrical. Let a girl day dream! #wesanderson ♬ Obituary – Alexandre Desplat


However, the French Dispatch director is trying really hard to turn a blind eye to the endless copy-cat content.

“I’m very good at protecting myself from seeing all that stuff,” Anderson told The Times. “If somebody sends me something like that I’ll immediately erase it and say, ‘Please, sorry, do not send me things of people doing me.’

“Because I do not want to look at it, thinking, ‘Is that what I do? Is that what I mean?’” he added. “I don’t want to see too much of someone else thinking about what I try to be because, God knows, I could then start doing it.”

As well as the TikTok challenge, there’s also been an uptick in AI-generated content around the filmmaker’s style. You can take look at some examples below.

Anderson’s latest project, Asteroid City, features a huge ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Maya Hawke, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Steve Carrell and Adrien Brody.

Set in a retro-futuristic version of 1955, the plot centres around the events of the town’s annual Junior Stargazer convention.

The movie releases in Irish cinemas on June 19, where it should be made clear that the best person at mimicking Wes Anderson is the man himself.

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