Why The Cast Of 'One Battle After Another' Can't Describe Their Own Movie

Here's Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the, you know, great writer, director, visionaries of our generation, doing a large-scale epic with comedy and action. We do our best, and we give it up to the critics and the audience and the people that hand out awards to make those decisions. But I'll say this, it's definitely Paul's time. You know what freedom is? What? No fear. PTA's tone is so specific. so it's like how do you even describe this movie to people maybe you should have studied the rebellion text a little harder we say this all the time you know it's interesting because i've had friends say well what's it about and then when you say it's hard they think you're they think you're being lazy purposefully being vague that you don't want to tell them and i'm like no it's hard to describe they're like all right it's a movie just tell me what it's about and you're like i know but and then when you say what it's about it can't convey it so then you don't want because it almost minimizes the truth of what the movie is. You just gotta see it. Like, you ever see that quote, you just had to be there? It's like, yeah, you just gotta see it. September 26th. Because it has an energy. The film has an energy. It's hard to convey what something feels like. I didn't even know how to begin describing tonally what it was. How would you describe it? I just think it's layered in every which way, with like, most of the movies, when I was younger and going to the movies in the late 70s, early 80s, it feels like these movies that were like an event, like, I don't know, I remember going to see The Mission, and it was like, there was a line around, and all you had was a poster, and that's what, and the name, Robert De Niro, and you're going like, okay, I wanna go see that, or like a Scorsese movie, The Color of Money, it's like, you have the name, You have the director, the actor, you just go and see it and you're taken. But here, and here is the same thing. You got Paul and you got Leo and you got this two titans going at it and doing one hell of a picture that is gonna be a lot of fun. And you got Sean Penn as well. You know, I mean, those are the names that you recognize off the bat, you know? And it's like, are you kidding me? And it is that good. I'll be seeing you very soon. Not if I see you first. Do you think if you read that script and it wasn't a PTA script, do you think that you still would have been on board or would you have been like, this is too bonkers, I don't know if this makes sense? I don't know if anybody else would have been able to pull off this script if it was in PTA, so I don't even think this script would even exist if it wasn't PTA, so that's a hard question to answer because it just would not exist. This script would not exist if it was in PTA. And if it did, it wouldn't be the same. You would just look at it and be like, this is, I don't even know what, but you know with Paul, you're like, got it. The second that this gaggle of journalists left the screening, you know, everyone's talking about how great it is and starts speculating about Oscars and major awards and stuff. Is that exciting to you or at this point in your careers, do you really not think about that stuff? You know, I think you would just want people to see this movie in the theaters. I mean, it's important, you know, people are always asking about original ideas, original concepts. Here's Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the, you know, great writer, director, visionaries of our generation doing a large scale epic with comedy and action and you know that that we make these films we do our best and we give it up to the critics and the audience and the people that hand out awards to make those decisions but i'll say this it's definitely paul's time and i think like listen if that thing happens there's no control over that if that if it happens great but i'm with leo I hope people go to see this movie on the big screen because if not you're missing out You're gonna get this a lot. But do you have a favorite in his catalog? You know, what's crazy Honestly, I think I think yeah, we love all his stuff, but I think he really set a new tone Well, yeah, one battle after another another I think he really set a new tone This is definitely one of my new favorites. I always get torn between Phantom Thread and and There Will Be Blood and maybe And Magnolia, but I love Phantom. Something about Phantom Thread was special to me. I love that movie. What's going down with Sensei's Underground Railroad right now? Where did that end up? And likewise, I want to know, is Bob still providing explosives? Is he running the pirate radio? Where did you guys end up? Where did our characters end up? You'll be playing something, some band or something, right? You bought some stuff. Yeah. A block past normal, I'll go with the local band, play at the local pub. you know actually there was there was one i there was one scene i think there was something we shot like for after yeah that he didn't use but i was back in the dojo teaching so that's official that's good i think i'd be there too right i'll be back he and he seemed pretty blasé about the whole thing he wasn't scared he's like yeah i'll handle this yeah i know some people in high places yeah yeah yeah yeah i think my character is going to continue to smoke pot and try to relate to his daughter That's just how the cards were rolled out for me. It's not cards. You don't roll cards. It's dice. Dad, what is wrong with you? Where's Deandra at? What's she doing? I think Deandra's in prison. It doesn't look like it. Yeah, I think she got some time. Don't you? I couldn't tell, honestly. I mean, it was like a harsh interrogation, but with the tone of this movie, you don't really know. You know what? That's the thing. She could have been bailed out. That is the thing. You never know. Like, you know, she's somewhere in Mexico. I'm somewhere, somewhere. Melissa's back home fighting the call. You don't know where these three women are. Speaking of Mexico, wherever you are, what do you think her day-to-day life is like? Like, what's she doing out there? Any closure, you think? Ooh, I don't think there's any closure. She never broke some man's heart. Probably so, because, you know, Perfidia is a heartbreaker. But I also think that per her letter, you know, I think she's doing a lot of reflecting. I think there's a lot of reflecting. I think she's sorry. and I think that, you know, I think she's just hoping for the day that it's safe enough to get back to her baby. God damn it!