Super Troopers

At the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the ’70s are back in a big way. There’s a dude in a brown leisure suit with lapels so wide you could land a plane on them. A foxy little mama cruises by in some sort of chiffon dress, her shapely legs encased in thick, flesh-toned panty hose. Her perfectly feathered hair bounces with each step she takes in her white open-toed sandals. The whole place is packed with people wearing ancient and exotic fabrics: satin, polyester, and pleather.

Owen Wilson—a.k.a. Detective Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson—slouches on an overstuffed couch in the lobby, wearing a light blue T-shirt and tan bell-bottoms. His dirty blond hair is shoulder-length and shaggy. His eyes are hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. He’s getting ready to shoot a climactic scene in the hotel ballroom with his partner, Ben Stiller—a.k.a. Detective Dave Starsky—and football legend and former blaxploitation star Fred Williamson, who plays Captain Dobey.

“His nickname is the Hammer,” Wilson says about Williamson, in a voice so soft you have to lean in to hear his slight Texas twang. His low tone gives the conversation a conspiratorial air. “He actually gave me a key chain with a hammer on it,” he says. “A trinket. A souvenir of our time spent together.”

Wilson seems genuinely moved by the gesture and acts as if he’s going to say as much, but becomes lost in thought. Seconds tick by. Then he mumbles. Something about nicknames. “I need a cool one,” he says, almost inaudibly, as if he’s talking to himself. “Like, the Hammer is really good. Luke [Wilson, his brother] has L Train. Sometimes people say O-something, O-Dog. But it’s not really the same as the Hammer.” Another one of his long pauses. And then: “It’s like, someone has to give you a nickname. You can’t just start saying, ‘Call me Ace.’ It’s like it needs . . .” Pause. A good backstory? “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” he says.