Interview (Written): Paul Thomas Anderson

A conversation with the writer-director of his new movie Licorice Pizza.

Eric Kohn from IndieWire interviews Paul Thomas Anderson whose screenwriting credits include Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk-Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, and his latest Licorice Pizza.

This movie may have more characters than anything you’ve done since “Magnolia.” And it’s such a specific world with a lot of period details strewn throughout. How did that impact your writing process?

This is definitely not a case of writing and seeing where it takes you. This is a case of having tons and tons of ammunition and individual pieces that I thought about for a long, long time and I tried to think about it long before I started writing anything about it, which can be quite a healthy way to start if you can enjoy the patience. Usually, you just want to rip your presents open on Christmas Eve. I was disciplined and waited to put this down until I’d more or less thought it through. The trick there is that you still have to have some room for discovery, because otherwise, what’s the point? I’d get bored. I don’t really outline it and sit and write. I’m working from memory and thought. I remember what has to happen: I’ve got to get from here to here, there’s this episode that I think is interesting. Where am I heading toward?

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“American Graffiti” was obviously a big influence on you. What has your relationship to that movie been over the years?

I remember seeing “American Graffiti” and thinking it took place in the Valley because Modesto and the Valley look pretty much exactly the same. I had no idea when I was younger that they were two different places. Anybody from any other part of the world would not be able to tell the difference between them. They’re California towns with one-story buildings. “American Graffiti,” I’m still moved by it every time I go back to it. I guess there are obvious reasons why. Is it totally inventive? I don’t know. It’s like a lot of other ensemble films. It’s something Altman was doing quite well and I’ve talked about my love of that. But “American Graffiti” is 97 minutes or so. It’s so compact. Normally when you have multi-stranded stories they tend to blossom and grow. “Fast Times” is the same thing. It’s like 93 minutes. There’s an economy there that’s so incredible.

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