Three men stand smiling between two large gold Oscar statuettes at the Academy Museum. The man on the left wears a plaid blazer, the center man a white suit, and the man on the right a blue shirt.
Academy Museum Foundation / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
Gossip

Wes Anderson and Luke Wilson Got Stuck in the Academy Museum’s Celebrity-Only Elevator, and Firefighters Had to Pull Them Out

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A 30th anniversary screening of Wes Anderson’s first film ended with him, Luke Wilson, and an 86-year-old Oscar winner packed into a stuck elevator. The firefighter who freed them had a guess about the cause: too much weight.

Six people were crammed into the Academy Museum’s hidden elevator, the one built so stars can slip in and out without the public seeing them, when it stopped moving Monday night.

Producer James L. Brooks, 86, was among them, along with Wilson, 54, and Anderson, 57. The Los Angeles Fire Department got the call at 7:49 p.m. and had the group out within the hour.

Three men stand smiling between two large golden Oscar statues at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
At the Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles, Luke Wilson, Wes Anderson, and James L. Brooks gathered before Oscar statues on July 6, 2026, marking ‘Bottle Rocket’s’ 30th anniversary. Photo by Richard Harbaugh / Academy Museum Foundation via Getty Images.

A video posted on Instagram caught Anderson asking a firefighter what went wrong. “Probably too much weight in there,” the firefighter told him.

The night was a celebration of Bottle Rocket, the 1996 crime comedy Anderson co-wrote with Owen Wilson, Luke’s brother, who was also at the event. Anderson has said the film’s first public screening went badly, with roughly 20 of the 86 people in the audience walking out by the halfway point.

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About the author

January Nelson

January Nelson

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.