Paul Thomas Anderson on 'Licorice Pizza' and Moviemaking: 'Anyone Who's Done This Knows That Confidence Is an Illusion'

https://variety.com/2021/film/features/paul-thomas-anderson-licorice-pizza-alana-haim-cooper-hoffman-1235107853/

Paul's interview with Variety!

Short interview on video with Florencia, Michael and Andy.

https://deadline.com/2021/11/licorice-pizza-michael-bauman-andy-jurgensen-florencia-martin-contenders-los-angeles-1234872594/

(And, yes, I think Andy is 15.)   

New York Times interview with Kyle Buchanan

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/movies/paul-thomas-anderson-licorice-pizza.html?partner=IFTTT

QuoteDoes it surprise you how some people are reacting to the age difference between Alana and Gary?

There's no line that's crossed, and there's nothing but the right intentions. It would surprise me if there was some kind of kerfuffle about it, because there's not that much there. That's not the story that we made, in any kind of way. There isn't a provocative bone in this film's body.

QuoteThere's at least one provocative bone in this film's body. I'm thinking of the scenes with a white restaurateur, played by John Michael Higgins, where he talks to his Japanese wife in an accent so offensive that my audience actually gasped.

Well, that's different. I think it would be a mistake to tell a period film through the eyes of 2021. You can't have a crystal ball, you have to be honest to that time. Not that it wouldn't happen right now, by the way. My mother-in-law's Japanese and my father-in-law is white, so seeing people speak English to her with a Japanese accent is something that happens all the time. I don't think they even know they're doing it.

Time magazine interview with PTA and Alana https://time.com/6122812/licorice-pizza-paul-thomas-anderson-alana-haim/

Vanity Fair interview: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/11/paul-thomas-anderson-licorice-pizza-interview?utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=vf&utm_medium=social&mbid=social_twitter&utm_social-type=owned

Awesome.  I enjoyed that.   I wish we could sit in his backyard (it's in  the low 80s today) and just talk movies with this guy for a few hours...

One day.  One day...

Interesting that he wanted this to come out in the summer. That's something I thought would be a good idea.

I found that interesting, too.   I wonder if you could have gotten industry/voter types to see it in the summer, or at least to as effective an extent.

Quote from: Drill on November 23, 2021, 01:05:23 PM
Interesting that he wanted this to come out in the summer. That's something I thought would be a good idea.

Without having seen the movie yet, for some reason I always thought a summer release would be the most appropriate for this (and I don't mean that as a bad thing). On the other hand, MGM is really treating it as the most precious arrow in their quiver for this season, so I'm not complaining.

That Vanity Fair interview is the most interesting one so far, I think. Glad that Benny Safdie got a shout out - I was looking forward to him in this but he's barely been mentioned at all so far.

This part in the Vanity Fair interview is just spot on:

QuoteBut I think that it's the nature of the game right now and I don't mind it. The only thing that I'm trying to not get upset about is that I have seen some writing about films that becomes dismissive, as if it's a beauty contest. Talking about a film as if it's a woman, like, "Yeah, she's never going to make it—hips too big, a little squat." That kind of stuff. It's not healthy for anybody and it makes my skin crawl a tiny little bit. It starts to get unnecessarily icky, in terms of a judgment on a film about its chances in terms of an award ceremony. We can be excited by it and it can be a privilege to be there, but when it starts to turn into a Miss America beauty contest, that stuff starts to give you a sour taste. Like, hmm, this doesn't feel right to me, the way people are talking about someone's work.

Why Paul Thomas Anderson Chose to Film Part of 'Licorice Pizza' at My Childhood Home
https://www.thrillist.com/paul-thomas-anderson-interview-licorice-pizza-movie

Paul's interview with thrillist.com. He talked with the former owner of Jon Peters' house in the film, most of the interview is about the Valley and its great places and memories. An interesting one!

You beat me by seconds.

As a Location Nerd, as a Proud Valley Boy, I fucking loved that interview.  God bless the Internet. 

(And for extra resonance, I sat at the bottom of the driveway to this place during only my 2nd set visit.   Just me, a security guard, and a PA....  I had no idea in that moment that it was the beginning of an amazing 3 month adventure.)

QuoteI grew up in the Valley in the '90s and 2000s, and I have to admit I have a fondness for it, but I didn't love growing up there. After I saw the film, I was immediately Googling all the locations to place them in my mind. Tail O' the Cock is now a mall with the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and the Western Bagel right where I went to high school. Where do you see the connection between the old and new Valley?

Well, every generation has something that connects them to the past, right? I'm 51 years old. Look, let me put it to you this way. I lived in Studio City. The woman that lived across the street from me, who was an older woman, was named Mary Brian. Mary Brian was in silent movies. As a 7, 8 year old, I would get cookies from my next-door neighbor who was a silent movie actress named Mary Brian, whose husband had already died. And her husband was George Tomasini, who was Alfred Hitchcock's editor. I grew up in Studio City in a quiet suburban neighborhood, but across the street from an 80-year-old woman who had been in silent movies. So I've touched the deep past. Now here I come along, and I'm going to make a film about my childhood. And it's remembering the Tail O' the Cock at Coldwater and Ventura, which to you is the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and the gas station. It's funny.

We should be "On the Lookout" (sorry), for the Jan 2022 issue of Empire Magazine.