You most likely know Owen Wilson best from movies like Wedding Crashers , Night At The Museum , Midnight In Paris , Zoolander , and Marley & Me . He has starred in some of the most iconic flicks of our time and has earned the right to be a household name.
Yet, there is still so much about him that fans don’t know!
1. He initially didn’t plan on getting into comedy, and still doesn’t exactly consider himself to be a comedian.
“I didn’t have a background in stand up comedy or anything and so I can’t say that I ever wanted to be a comic. I still don’t think of myself that way,” he told Female First .
“I kind of ended up being in the funny movies just because the stuff that Wes [Anderson] and I started writing was the stuff that ended up having a funny slant to it. But I remember hearing Steve Martin’s album Let’s Get Small.”
2. He has suffered from depression.
Back in 2007, it was alleged that Owen attempted suicide after struggling with depression for that period of his life.
Following the incident, he would walk out of interviews if he felt the journalist was angling to ask him about it.
3. He was a writer before he became an actor
“Maybe because I did begin as a writer, I’ve always found that directors are open to hearing new ideas, whether or not they use them, I’ve always felt encouraged to bring them,” he told Hollywood .
“In fact, the couple of times that I haven’t felt that way has been a challenging work experience.”
4. He is a father of three.
Owen has three children with three different women.
A son, Robert Ford Wilson, with his former girlfriend, Jade Duell, another son, Finn Lindqvist Wilson, with his former personal trainer, Caroline Lindqvist, and a daughter , Lyla Wilson, with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Varunie Vongsvirates
He has never met his daughter, Lyla.
According to Daily Mail , after allegedly refusing to meet his daughter and demanding a DNA test, Owen now pays $25,000 per month in child support to his ex-girlfriend, Varunie Vongsvirates.
He also allegedly marked “none” when asked whether he wanted visitation rights.
5. He and Ben Stiller have always had an easy time working together.
“It was always easy. I don’t think we were ever nervous or uncomfortable acting together, and I think usually when you are on the same page with somebody’s sense of humor wise, it goes pretty smoothly. And that’s always the way it is with Ben and me,” he told Female First .
6. He first met Ben Stiller while auditioning for a role in *The Cable Guy*.
“Yeah, I can. I first met Ben when I went to audition for The Cable Guy . Judd Apatow co- wrote that movie and I found out later that Judd really pushed for Ben to cast me,” he joked .
“Ben wasn’t very blown away by my audition and I’m not sure if ‘reluctant’ is the right word, but let’s say he put me in the movie without huge enthusiasm. But you know we ended up getting along really well and he said that he really liked the way I played my character in The Cable Guy .”
“I remember that he told me later that when he was editing the movie that it was one of his favourite scenes to work with – he said he really enjoyed that scene between me and Leslie Mann and how obnoxious my character was.”
“And then he saw Bottle Rocket after we had filmed The Cable Guy and he was a big supporter of the movie and he wrote me a very nice note, saying how much he liked it.”
7. He loves to improvise with Ben Stiller.
“When I’m working with Ben, who is someone who is very comfortable with improvising, then we can feed each other ideas or play with different ways of doing a scene. I’d say it’s rare to work on a movie where you don’t do at least some improvising,” he told Female First .
8. He has been in 12 movies with Ben Stiller.
There is no wonder that he and Ben are such good friends, seeing as they nearly spend every waking professional moment together .
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It seems inevitable that they’d wind up being BFFs.
9. He spends every Thanksgiving with his family in Dallas.
“I celebrate it in Dallas with my family. We watch the Cowboys game, eat Thanksgiving dinner, and maybe try to get up a football game earlier in the day. My mom makes the Thanksgiving dinner, and she’s great at it. She makes apple pie, pecan pie, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, yams. I’d say it’s my favorite meal of the year,” he told WebMD .
10. His nose has been broken twice.
Owen is known for a lot of great things, but there’s no denying that his crooked, distinct-looking nose has been a trademark of his in Hollywood.
This is a result of accidentally being broken twice when he was growing up. However, he often declines to speak on it when journalists inquire about it.
11. He’s a big fan of Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, and Jonah Hill.
In an interview with Female First , Owen revealed that of all the big names in comedy, he’s an especially big fan of Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, Steve Martin, and of course, Ben Stiller.
12. If the film he wrote and starred in, *Bottle Rocket* had not been successful, his back-up plan was to join the military.
While Owen has made it clear writing is his primary passion, then acting, he admitted that if Bottle Rocket hadn’t been a success, he planned on joining the Marine Corps.
13. He called sharing a bathtub with Jackie Chan a “bonding experience.”
“Being in a bathtub with Jackie Chan , I don’t know, it has a way of bonding you I’ll tell you that. I don’t know if there are some weird undertones. It was like we had met in Los Angeles and we didn’t have that much to say to each other but, after that bathtub scene, we were great friends. What it really was was that when we’d play off each other, it really was fun. We really did become friends .”
