Jason Schwartzman might be a newbie when it comes to joining in the festivities at the hot-ticket White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday. But the actor is fully prepared for rubbing shoulders at the annual triangulation of media, politics and showbiz in Washington, D.C.
"I brought pads," he says with the sort of deadpan elan that launched his career in 1998's Rushmore. He will be joining other hipster-vetted celebs Fred Armisen (Portlandia) and Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation) as guests of The New Yorker. "David Remnick is so smart," he says of the magazine's editor. "I'm super excited."
Schwartzman, 31, whose fourth feature with filmmaker Wes Anderson —Moonrise Kingdom— opens next month, is still not sure he belongs with a crowd that includes George Clooney, Charlize Theron and at least one Kardashian sister. "I feel like Peter Sellers in The Party," the 1968 comedy in which the British actor plays a movie extra accidentally invited to an A-list shindig. "Someone probably wrote down 'Please don't invite Jason Schwartzman' and they read it wrong. Or they meant a different Jason Schwartzman."
He won't say what way he swings politically ("I've been told by my team to say 'no comment'"), though he would be thrilled to meet President Obama. "I would ask him not about politics, but his daily life. How does he keep his energy up? What does he eat?"
Speaking of eating, Schwartzman was a bit chagrined to learn that steak and shrimp were on the menu. "I'm a flamboyant vegetarian." Perhaps he can make do with the haricot verts.
