Interview: L.A. Times

Los Angeles Times, Written By Kenneth Turan
December 2007

An intense actor and director make for a fiery combination in 'Blood.'

"THERE Will Be Blood," the joint venture between actor Daniel Day-Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson, might be the most incendiary combination since the Molotov cocktail. Though it can be over the top and excessive, this morality play set in the early days of California's oil boom also creates considerable heat and light and does some serious aesthetic damage.


Aside from exceptional talent and triple-decker names, Day-Lewis and Anderson share a ferocity of approach to their work, investing so much intensity in the projects they choose that they don't choose very many: "Blood" is the actor's fourth film in the last decade and the director's second in the last eight years.

Anderson, a modern cinematic visionary, is always happiest when he is out on the aesthetic edge, determined to involve audiences in disturbing, difficult narratives, from the suburban pornographers of "Boogie Nights" to "Magnolia's" raining frogs.

As for Day-Lewis, he has become justifiably celebrated for disappearing into his characters with a completeness that is both terrifying and an ideal match for Anderson's filmmaking approach. "People don't know how Daniel can do this job the way that he does it," the director has tellingly said, "and my feeling is, I just can't understand how anyone could do it any other way."

The story that has intrigued these two men started with a venerable source, Upton Sinclair's muckraking 1927 novel "Oil!" The book, however, has a really minimal, almost "suggested by" relationship to what's on the screen, which turns out to be a distinctly timely and modern tale, albeit one with problematic aspects, that involves the unholy trinity of oil, money and religion.

For Anderson, who has reveled in multi-strand stories, this has been a chance to venture into, in his own words, "100% straightforward old-fashioned storytelling." With this filmmaker, however, nothing is ever really old-fashioned or straightforward, and there is enough savagery, extremism and grotesque violence in the way "Blood" unfolds to unsettle most folk.

Making "Blood's" story even more disturbing is the troubling score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, powerful, brooding new music that is critical to the film's impact, creating pervasive uneasiness and letting us know that, appearances to the contrary, we're not watching a conventional story.

It helps, of course, to have someone of Day-Lewis' trademark fierceness and implacability as protagonist Daniel Plainview, whom we follow from his turn-of-the-20th-century beginnings as a silver miner to a finale nearly 30 years later.

Day-Lewis works at such a high-wire level that many of the film's supporting cast members simply fade away. Only the self-possessed newcomer Dillon Freasier as his young son H.W. and the gifted Paul Dano of "Little Miss Sunshine" as his nemesis have the ability to hold the screen against him.

Marvelously photographed by Anderson veteran Robert Elswit largely around Marfa, Texas (where "Giant" was shot), "There Will Be Blood" is western to its core, presenting a vast, uncaring environment that dwarfs the grasping men who are determined to wrest hidden wealth from the earth. Anderson has said that "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," John Huston's treatise on madness and greed, was a touchstone movie for him in shooting, and it's easy to see why.

After preliminary, almost wordless sequences convincingly establishing the world of turn-of-the-last-century oil prospecting, "Blood" begins in earnest with Day-Lewis' Plainview persuasively addressing a group of citizens whose oil he wants to drill for.

He's an oilman, he says in an almost melodic voice, not a speculator, and, grandly introducing the 10-year-old H.D. as "my son and my partner," he also claims to offer "the bond of family." Convincing and compelling as all this is, there are hints of other traits in Plainview, intimations of a frighteningly indomitable man you trifle with at your own peril.

With the original Upton Sinclair "Oil!" said to be based on the Signal Hill oil strike outside of Long Beach, the largest part of "There Will Be Blood" takes place around a similar huge strike near the fictional California town of Little Boston. Plainview goes there on a tip, and the film shows what transpires as he attempts to consolidate control over the vast oil fields he discovers. It is not a pretty picture.

For as he works to gain power, Plainview turns into God's wrath, or the devil's. He engages in ferocious battles with all comers, even his son, but his most bitter fight is with young Eli Sunday (the smoothly effective Dano), a charismatic preacher and faith healer and founder of Little Boston's Church of the Third Revelation. On a personal level, Sunday is no more godly than Plainview, and their psychological and even physical combat is savagery itself.

Though he starts out almost likable, as Plainview stores up hatreds and animosities over the years, his coldness and arrogance become more visible and his indifference to and contempt for humanity grows exponentially. This, "There Will Be Blood" is in part saying, is what we do to ourselves when, as either business or religious leaders, we deny the humanity in us and overvalue wealth and power.

This study of rapacious, uncaring capitalism points up the uncertain philosophical legacy of the original novel, for where "Blood" shows its limitations is in the realm of subtleties of character development.

It's important to remember that Sinclair was as much a committed socialist as a novelist, someone who probably wrote for political purpose more than for dramatic effect. So while Day-Lewis' gorgeous acting largely disguises it, the people in "Blood" tend to be schematic and the film as a whole has a weakness for the didactic. In its willingness to push everything, even personality, to extremes, this is a film with the defects of its virtues, so it's fortunate that those virtues are very great indeed.

Interview: Indiewire

Indiewire, Written by Eugene Hernandez
December 24, 2007

iW PROFILE | "There Will Be Blood" Director Paul Thomas Anderson

Sitting down with indieWIRE earlier this month in New York City for a one-on-one conversation about "There Will Be Blood," the exceptional new film that dominated iW's 2007 film critics' poll, American auteur Paul Thomas Anderson caught a first glimpse of Upton Sinclair's re-issued 1920s novel, "Oil!" resting on a small table nearby. Examining the book's cover, he groused briefly about the need to place an image of Daniel Day-Lewis on the front of the book, explaining that he had intially hoped the promotional item could be re-released with that same simple cover that first caught his eye in a London bookstore years ago. Picking up the book back in Britain started him on the long journey to making his epic new film.

Sinclair's novel is at the core of "There Will Be Blood," its script loosely adapted by P.T. Anderson from essentially the book's first 150 pages or so. But, to flesh out his story about the emergence of a powerful California oil baron who f inds himself at odds with a skillful young preacher leading a growing congregation, Anderson spent years immersing himself in the history of oil in America, studying photographs and visiting numerous museums dedicated to the subject. He also relied on Margaret Leslie Davis' biography of infamous oil tycoon Edward Doheny, The Dark Side of Fortune. Anderson's rich story -- opening in limited release on Wednesday, Dec. 26th -- examines a dynamic intersection of oil and religion, family and greed, driven by capitalism and corruption. Connections to America one hundred years later are subtle but striking.


With dollar signs in his eyes, "There Will Be Blood"'s Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) travels with his young son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) to Central California in search of oil riches. In the modest, dusty town of Little Boston, they settle on the ranch of a local family living atop what may be an ocean of black gold. Equally ambitious and opportunistic is the family's eldest son, emerging Pentecostal evangelist Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), who quickly finds himself competing with Plainview for the hearts and minds of the townspeople.

Asked about some of his cinematic influences, during a Q & A with noted critic Annette Insdorf along with Daniel Day-Lewis last week at New York City's 92 Street Y, Anderson cited both John Huston's 1948 film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and George Stevens' 1956 film, "Giant." Huston's own voice may have inadvertently permeated the character created by Day-Lewis for the film. An even stronger link is the fact that Anderson filmed "Blood" in Marfa, TX where "Giant" was shot.

While struggling with the screenply for "There Will Be Blood," Anderson said that he came across "Sierra Madre," admiring the "economy" with which the story was told. Calling the film a "buoy in the night," he said, "I needed a foothold and when I came across it again, it was a lifesaver."

in conversations about his new film, Paul Thomas Anderson has emphasized the collaboration that drove the film. Settling comfortably into an old-fashioned armchair for the indieWIRE interview, he offered background on "Blood," discussing his work with some of the movie's key collaborators, including lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis, production designer Jack Fisk (a regular collaborator with Terrence Malick), frequent Robert Altman editor Dylan Tichenor, cinematographer Robert Elswit, who has worked with Anderson on all of his films, and first-time film composer Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead. The film was produced by Anderson's regular partners JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi.

For his California story, P.T. Anderson wanted to shoot the film in his home state, but couldn't find the right undeveloped landscape. Looking for, "what Bakersfield would have looked like before the discovery of oil," he ended up in West Texas. Detailing the importance of the setting, Anderson recalled walking around the 50,000 acre Marfa ranch they found, literally planning where to build his town, surveying the land and nailing a stake with a red flag into the ground when he decided where to construct houses, a church and an oil derrick for the town of Little Boston. The ranch even had requisite train tracks. With the exception of the derrick, the structures -- erected over the course of three months -- still stand, and were constructed as four-sided, actual buildings, rather than movie set facades.

P.T. Anderson, who exudes confidence first and foremost as a writer, explained that he was still working on the unfinished screenplay for "There Will Be Blood" when Daniel Day-Lewis signed onto the project. In the two years before production actually commenced, the director recalled an initial resistance upon receiving a tape of Day Lewis performing his distinctive character. He eventually came around.

"It was terrifying, even as much as I looked forward to working with Daniel and trust [him]...," Anderson recalled about bringing Day-Lewis into the process, Once the actors and others were on board, P.T.A. explained that he had to take off his writer's hat and focus only on orchestrating the execution of his script. The process begins and ends with the writing, Anderson noted in an interview with Charlie Rose last week, explaining that if the script is good, directing can be easy. But once he and his collaborators are on set, "The writer really gets left at the door," he added, because, "nine times out of ten, [any] problems are with the writing."

Reflecting on his recent work as the stand-in director for major filmic influence Robert Altman on the set of the maverick's final film, "A Prairie Home Companion," Anderson told indieWIRE that he learned to "hold onto stuff" and not always give his collaborators the immediate answers they desired. Sometimes not answering their questions resulted in the best results, he found. But, in the conversation with iW, and then again the next night during the lengthy Q & A alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, P.T. Anderson reflected on that "terrifying baton hand off" that took place when he began to bring people into the world he was imagining.

A good example of that came near the end of the process when Anderson developed the music for the movie. A key element that literally sets the tone for his film is Jonny Greenwood's evocative score that opens the movie with an extended high pitched blare, jolting the viewer from the get go. The music carries the viewer through an extended, otherwise silent sequence depicting Plainview's early efforts to find oil. A bit tentative initially, Greenwood went away to create music, ultimately delivering two hours of work for the picture.

Concluding the conversation with indieWIRE, Anderson marveled at the arc of of a project like "There Will Be Blood" that began with his solitary period as a writer, grew to include the many collaborators and then, once shooting was complete, left the film in the hands of just a few people. He said that structure reminds him of the shape of a Christmas tree.

"You know, when you're making a film you start with all these collaborators," Anderson said in notes on the film, "And in the end you come down to just three people - the director, the composer and the editor -- holding this work together."

Interview: L.A. Times

Los Angeles Times, Written By (??)
December 2007

Prospectors Anderson and Day-Lewis strike black gold

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON is one of a handful of auteurs who is actively evolving the cinematic language. Known for his nerve-jangling urban stories (set usually in the San Fernando Valley), his new film, "There Will Be Blood," is inspired by "Oil!," an Upton Sinclair novel about the burgeoning petroleum industry in turn-of-the-century California. To star in his first period piece, a dark, propulsive character study, Anderson landed Daniel Day-Lewis.

In a suite at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills to talk about the movie, which opens in Los Angeles on Dec. 26, the two notoriously media-shy artists are disarmingly loose and engaging. Day-Lewis, with shaggy, graying hair, golden hoops in his ears and tattoos covering his right arm, liberally interjects mischievous remarks into the conversation. Anderson is unshaven and rumpled, and radiates the youthful energy of someone who is still very much in love with film.


So how did you two get together to make this movie?

Anderson: I knew through the grapevine that Daniel had liked "Punch-Drunk Love" a lot, so I felt confident enough to ask him to read the script I was writing. It worked out really nicely just because our lives were at a good spot. He was ready to work and I was in New York at the same time he was in New York. So, long afternoon walks and really good breakfasts.

Day-Lewis: We really tucked away some ham and eggs.

Anderson: You get to learn a lot about somebody you might want to work with from what they order for breakfast.

Day-Lewis: Yeah, yeah. What's that appetite like? [cocking an eyebrow] And do they resist the appetite? Are they really very hungry but they order the fruit plate?

So did you craft the character of Plainview with Daniel in mind?

Anderson: Well, yeah, certainly hoping that it would be a possibility. It didn't start that way. The character in the book had its own personality and then I sort of added to that along the way. At whatever point, I thought, if there would ever be a great time to ask Daniel to do something, this would probably be it. Whether or not he was going to do it, that kind of gave me the confidence to write something that only he's capable of doing. Which was great, because you think, there's only one person who can really do this, one person mad enough to say this stuff. [Laughter]

Is it true you started the idea for the script before you came across "Oil!"?

Anderson: I'm always writing and have things lying around, like wolf dust. You know the old phrase, when you don't have anything in the kitchen but you've got lots of little bits and pieces and leftovers, things in the can, and you get a meal together out of that. It's "wolf dust," so when the wolf comes knocking, you'll have at least enough to keep him away from the door. I felt like I had nothing solid to offer up but enough things that I'd written down that maybe matched up with what I saw in "Oil!" and could pair up with it.

I wonder why a project with you two attached would have trouble getting financed, as this did, apart from the lack of car crashes and women being tortured.

Day-Lewis: Probably someone somewhere said, "If ever we let those two . . . get together, there's going to be trouble."

Anderson: Yeah, that's probably what they said.

Day-Lewis: It's a bit like crunching numbers to work out whether an actor or a director is going to be a payoff. They do the same thing with all the ingredients, apparently, of any given project. And this is a period film, which apparently nobody wants to go see; there are no girls in it . . .

Anderson: Length . . . [The film clocks in at 2 hours, 37 minutes.]

Day-Lewis: And it's a film without a perceivable happy ending. Although I think it's quite happy.

Anderson: Do you remember when we were sitting at dinner and we were kind of moping about and there was a long pause and I said, "What's the movie you were in that made the most money?" And you said, "Don't . . . blame it on me!"

Back to the adaptation, if you can call it that, because your version bears so little resemblance to the book. Pretty much everything is different but the setting. The familial relationships, the plot, even the names are different. So what about that text was inspiring to you?

Anderson: So many things. I mean, you can say, 'Why did you fall in love with your wife?' 'Well, she's beautiful, she's got a great sense of humor,' but I don't feel like I've said anything. I had enough books and a passing interest in that time and the oil fields of California. But this was a book that had a substantial story. Whether or not we could tell all of that story, it was enough to really get started and to piggyback on the language that was started in the book. It's a great feeling to take a scene from the book, we're talking about the real estate office, which is quite a long scene and detailed in terms of the operation of how Plainview is going to gobble up a bunch of land. We very slowly shrunk it down and shrunk it down and shrunk it down to what we needed. It was very simple. "I have just bought the Sunday ranch. Where's the map?" But it's a great feeling to know what the bigger version of that scene is for Daniel and for me; you're armed with as much information as you can.

The way you pared that scene down makes Plainview seem like the model of efficiency: "Here are the pretenses under which I'm going to buy land, and here's what I really want."

Day-Lewis: It kills two birds with one stone. It gives you Plainview's efficiency, it gives you an incredible sense of his momentum; but it also gives the film momentum at a time when it needs to be really going forward. You need to feel that once Plainview goes into action, everything is in his slipstream, everyone is just struggling to catch up with the man. He sees where the scam is, where dirty deeds have to be done and just gets on with it.

When I think of the Sinclair book, I think of a socialist diatribe about the relationship between labor and management. But that's not present in your film. You grab the Eli story and go in a totally different direction. Was that because the Eli story was more dramatic for you, or were you not interested in that (rather timely) labor-management dynamic?

Anderson: I was interested in it but certainly not as interested as I was in the juicier stuff. And while it might be interesting to read, it seemed impossible to film. I didn't know how to film that kind of struggle without it being overly talky.

Were you consciously trying to get away from things you'd done before? It feels so different from your other films. Different collaborators, a period piece . . .

Anderson: Definitely. But I remember feeling that way when I made "Punch-Drunk Love." "Whatever I did last time, I don't want to do that again." Desperate to not feel comfortable or to not repeat yourself. Probably secretly only happy if completely terrified. . . . But the thrill of working with new people too, I mean, to work with Daniel and Jack Fisk, a production designer I hadn't worked with before, it's great. You start out being so polite with your new collaborators, don't you?

Day-Lewis: Mmm, yeah, yeah.

Anderson: And then it's great when you get to that point where you're not polite anymore. You're all savages.

Interview: Daniel Day-Lewis & Paul Thomas Anderson

The Moving Image Source has made an Mp3 Interview featuring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson on their website. Their description:

Daniel Day-Lewis's magnificent performance as the ambitious and ruthless oil tycoon Daniel Plainview is at the core of Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed movie There Will be Blood. In this discussion, which followed a Museum of the Moving Image preview screening of the film, the actor and director playfully and thoughtfully discussed their intense collaborative process.

You can listen to the interview here or for less entertainment, read the html or pdf versions of the transcript which are also provided under the audio links on their page.