The Grossest ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ Joke Wasn’t a Special Effect

Rushmore director Wes Anderson isn’t known for being the most disgusting filmmaker around. Unless, of course, you’re grossed out by the sight of vintage tweed and/or perfectly symmetrical pastel-colored objects. But one moment in Anderson’s widely-beloved third movie, The Royal Tenenbaums, is pretty icky. Not Cronenberg-levels of gnarly, mind you, but memorably unpleasant nonetheless.

In a flashback, we see that Chas (the character played as an adult by Ben Stiller) was shot in the hand by his own father during a BB gun fight. When he protests that they’re supposed to be on the same team, Royal shouts back: “There are no teams!” Narrator Alec Baldwin then informs us that “the BB was still lodged between two knuckles in Chas’ left hand.”

During a confrontation with his father, Chas shows Royal that the BB is, in fact, still visible underneath his skin, prompting him to poke at it. According to a famous piece of movie trivia, the hand we see in the movie doesn’t really belong to Stiller, but rather, to Owen and Luke Wilson’s brother Andrew. Why? Because he actually does have a BB stuck next to a knuckle. 

Owen Wilson recently appeared on Hot Ones, and between bites of the same chicken wings that nearly brought down a certain red-headed former late night host, he confirmed that the story is, in fact, true. Wilson, who co-wrote The Royal Tenenbaums with Anderson, did shoot his brother with a BB gun when they were kids, and that same BB is the one we see in the movie. 

“Growing up in the ‘70s and early ‘80s was a wilder time than now,” Wilson argued, pointing out that his brother Andrew has “gotten so much mileage out of the story that I wonder if it was a good thing.”

“At the end of the day, I don’t think he would change it,” Wilson continued. “I think he likes having that. I don’t want to say he’s like a World War II veteran, of course, but in a way, he is a veteran of growing up in Dallas.”

The shot of the BB-impaired hand isn’t Andrew Wilson’s only cameo in The Royal Tenenbaums. Along with Anderson, he provides the voice of tennis commentator Tex Hayward during the scene in which his brother Luke’s character Richie is having the worst match of his life. He’s the one who points out that Richie appears to be crying. 

All of which goes to show that even if you disfigure a close family member, there’s always a chance that you could mine that trauma for a feature film at some point in the future.