Eccentric filmmaker Wes Anderson, known for his signature style made famous in movies like Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums  and The Life Aquatic, recently spoke to the HuffPost about his latest venture, Moonrise Kingdom, the joys and pains of working with teenagers, and what he thinks about opinionated critics.

Moonrise Kingdom debuted at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival earlier this month and saw its American release this past Friday. The film is set in 1965 New England and follows two 13-year-old children who fall in love and flee their hometown, which prompts a search and rescue party to be launched. Anderson’s latest film features many familiar faces like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, as well as several other A-listers including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel and Tilda Swinton.

As with his other films, Anderson is particular to the point of madness and this was no exception. It took him and this team the better part of a year to cast the two young lovers and at times he feared they might not ever find what they were looking for.

Yes, I did [think we wouldn’t find the right people]. That’s always there. The tension of it. That kind of relates to something I feel about the whole filmmaking process in general. Every time you do a take on a movie, you’re not sure if it’s going to succeed. Even if you have a great cast, like we had, every scene you’re kind of waiting for the release. “Oh, yes; it happened. We got it!” There’s always the possibility that it’s just not going to work.

In filmmaking, criticism comes with the territory and each director, writer, producer etc deals with it in his or her own way, as for Anderson, he couldn’t really care less. When asked how he felt about critics panning his work as “just another Wes Anderson movie” or referring to his movies as “twee” he responded,

Well, it’s not annoying. It’s just, you know, my real honest response is just … nothing. It’s just white noise to me. It’s lost all its sting over the years.

Like water off of a duck’s back. To read the rest of the interview, click here.

[Source: Huff Post, IMDB]