Jake Ryan ordered a slice of pizza for breakfast, from a spot on the grubby corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Eighth Avenue. He wore sunglasses and a hoodie, his hair slicked into a wave over his forehead. At nineteen, Ryan is well into his acting career, having worked with such indie auteurs as the Coen brothers, the Safdie brothers, and Bo Burnham. He has the look and the affect of the teen-age Jason Schwartzman, when Schwartzman made his film début, as a deadpan-nebbish brainiac, in Wes Anderson’s "Rushmore." This probably explains why Ryan plays Schwartzman’s son, a deadpan-nebbish brainiac, in Anderson’s newest film, "Asteroid City."

Ryan had come in from Long Island. His father is a financial adviser, and his mother is a momager. He hadn’t walked around the city since the pandemic, but he wanted to visit this particular pizzeria, in the armpit-of-Manhattan stretch between Penn Station and Times Square, because he used to take improv classes nearby, at the Upright Citizens Brigade. (He was fifteen, but told U.C.B. that he was eighteen.) "I used to stop by this place every Sunday before class," he recalled, and took a bite. When he was done, he Purelled his hands and said, "Where to?"

"Asteroid City" is Ryan’s third film with Anderson. When he was seven, he was cast as one of Frances McDormand and Bill Murray’s sons in "Moonrise Kingdom," and he later voiced a language interpreter in "Isle of Dogs." In between, he collaborated with Anderson on a Sony commercial: Ryan fantasized about what was inside a smartphone (a factory of tiny robots?), and his musings were animated in stop-motion. He started acting at age five. "My parents put me in a bunch of different activities, just to see what would stick," he recalled. "We landed between T-ball, gymnastics, and acting. What a combo, right?" His first movie was "The Innkeepers," a haunted-hotel thriller. "We stayed and shot at the actual haunted hotel," Ryan said. "I didn’t really believe in ghosts, but it’s still . . . unsettling."

He got the role in "Moonrise Kingdom" soon afterward, in part because he could play piano. First impression of Anderson? "He was very tall, because I was very short. I still am very short," Ryan said, strolling through a din of police sirens and construction. He didn’t recognize anyone in the cast except Edward Norton, because of "The Incredible Hulk." "I tried for the entirety of the shoot to get his autograph, but it never happened," he went on. "Eventually, there was a photo shoot for the promotional posters, and I got him to sign my ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book.’ There’s this one page where it’s, like, ‘Ask your friends to write their signatures, in case they become famous one day.’ "

Next came roles in the Coens’ "Inside Llewyn Davis" (before Ryan got the part, his mother reminded him that Joel Coen was married to McDormand, and he told the director, "Say hi to Fran") and Burnham’s "Eighth Grade," as a geeky showoff who has an awkward date with the main character over chicken nuggets. Burnham drew on Ryan’s adolescent quirks, including his "Rick and Morty" impression. "I was a very strange individual at the time," Ryan said. "I mean, I still kind of am." When he saw the movie, he had a paroxysm of mortification ("It was just painful, man"), and he still hates watching himself onscreen. At an after-party, a guy claiming to be a director asked if he could play basketball: "My mom was, like, ‘This isn’t legit, man!’ " It was one of the Safdie brothers, who cast Ryan in "Uncut Gems," as a dwarf in a school play.

Ryan popped into a tourist shop. "I like the fine china," he said, eying a Statue of Liberty plate. He moved on: "I don’t think I actually have an ‘I Love New York’ shirt."

"Twenty-five bucks," a proprietor said, looming. "You give me seventeen."

"I don’t have that much money," Ryan apologized.

"How much your budget?"

"Um, probably five dollars?"

He found refuge at a Taco Bell. In "Asteroid City," he plays a mid-century astronomy whiz who comes to a desert city for a stargazing convention. For his audition, he had to say his lines "at the pace of someone from 1955." On set, Anderson showed him and the other "stargazers" the fifties films that had inspired him, including "Rear Window" and "Ace in the Hole." Ryan, who turned eighteen on the shoot, got to know the all-star cast, including Tilda Swinton ("a little bubbly"), Tom Hanks (who treated the kids to his Woody voice, from "Toy Story"), and Scarlett Johansson (who advised him to save money). Schwartzman told "jokes about snails." Ryan hadn’t thought much about their resemblance. "I guess you could look at it as a passing-the-torch moment," he said. "I mean, Jason is Jason, and I’m not going to be anything other than myself, I suppose. But I wouldn’t want to be, I guess?" ♦