Acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is back with his latest feature, “One Battle After Another,” releasing this month, and has commented on a trio of actors he’d like to work with in the future, including someone he’s very familiar with.
Variety recently asked PTA about actors he’s “dying to work with” after spending decades pursuing Sean Penn for “One Battle After Another.” Unsurprisingly, he mentions both Oscar-winners Denzel Washington (“Highest 2 Lowest”) and Olivia Colman (“The Roses”), who you could easily see slide into characters from his mind.
“Denzel. There’s a white whale right there. That power, the scale of his movie-star power and range, that’s very exciting to think about working with. Olivia Colman she’s an absolute powerhouse. Once I’ve worked with somebody, I really want to work with them again and again. I really want to work with every single person that’s in this film,” Paul Thomas Anderson told Variety in a new interview to promote the latest film’s release.
That’s not it, as PTA also said he’s “anxious” to reunite with his “Inherent Vice” and “The Master” star Joaquin Phoenix in the future: “I’m very anxious to work with Joaquin again.”
You’d like to think that PTA is in a position at this point in his directorial career (after the well-deserved clout developed in the acting community from his working relationship with a living legend like Daniel Day-Lewis) that all he has to do is wave his hand or call up talent to get them into his movies, but that surely isn’t the case if it took him this long to work with someone like Penn.
We’ll be hopeful that Paul Thomas Anderson gets to work with WHOEVER he wants, yet we’re also realistic that those plans don’t always come together for various reasons. That doesn’t stop the wishfulness of seeing big names connecting with a beloved director like Anderson.
“One Battle After Another,” led by Leonardo DiCaprio, hits theaters on September 26.
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