Wes Anderson tells friends not to send him TikToks of people impersonating his style: ‘I’ll immediately erase it’

Wes Anderson refuses to watch any TikTok impersonators, the Asteroid City director has revealed.

In recent months, Anderson’s distinct creative style has become a viral “challenge” on the social media platform as users create content inspired by the Grand Budapest Hotel filmmaker.

These Anderson-esque elements include symmetrical compositions, people staring directly into the camera, pastel colour palettes, and the use of quirky humour.

In a new interview with The Times, the director said he asks friends not to send him any “Wes Anderson challenge” memes.

“I’m very good at protecting myself from seeing all that stuff,” he said.

“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?’ 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.”

One such recent clip reimagined Star Wars through the eyes of Anderson. Through AI-generated animation, the likenesses of Anderon-favourite actors such as Scarlett Johansson, Owen Wilson and Jeff Goldblum are included as part of the trailer.

In another viral video, a content creator captured the moment she was told via email that she had been laid off in Anderson’s style.

The director’s new comedy-drama, Asteroid City, features a star-studded cast of Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Maya Hawke and more.

The film is said to be a “poetic meditation on the meaning of life”. Set in a fictional American desert town around 1955, it will tell the story of the town’s Junior Stargazer convention and the students and parents it brings together.

Read The Independent’s five-star review of the movie here.

Asteroid City is out in cinemas on 16 June.