In what is arguably his first backstage appearance this awards season, Paul Thomas Anderson fielded the hard questions about his socio political family action dramedy One Battle After Another.
One journalist asked what One Battle After Another‘s message was to society, given that the Oscar Best Picture winner often tells the temper of our times.
“I thought we were supposed to be partying!” Paul Thomas Anderson sighed and quipped at first, before answering seriously, “Our film obviously has a certain amount of parallels to what’s happening in the news everyday, so it obviously reflects what’s happening in the world.”
The movie opens on Leonardo DiCaprio and Tenaya Taylor’s anarchist group raiding a military controlled ICE-like encampment and freeing the prisoners.
“In terms of where it’s going – I don’t know,” answered Anderson, “But I know that the end of our movie is our hero, Willa, heading off to continue to fight against evil forces, and I think like I said in my speech, at least put common and decency back into fashion.”
In the short session, another reporter bluntly asked Anderson about the pic’s portrayal of Black females and racial politics. What’s Anderson’s response to those who have interpreted and critiqued the film’s portrayal of race?
“I know a little bit about that critique,” said tonight’s 3x Oscar winner, “I know that Teyana (Taylor) has talked about it a lot. I know we have the portrayal of many different characters, in particular her character who is so flawed, and unfortunately makes decisions that are detrimental to the revolution she is trying to fight.”
He continued, “It’s complicated. We always knew we were trying to make something complicated. We knew weren’t making something that wasn’t heroic, and we needed to lean into that, and we needed to own the fact that this woman was suffering not only from postpartum depression, but she was suffering from issues of her own, that she hadn’t really reconciled with.”
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“It’s a pretty dangerous thing when you start off and want to change the world, but you become selfish. You read your own reviews. That was our hero in (Taylor’s) Perfidia, who becomes an anti-hero. The point of it is to set up the story of Willa, the next generation: What happens when your parents who are damaged have handed quite a difficult history to you, how do you manage that?”
“That’s our story, and our story is in Chase (Infiniti’s character) and her evolution.”
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One Battle After Another cost a reported net $140M before P&A. It is Anderson’s highest grossing movie at the global box office with close to $210M worldwide. Some have questioned the movie’s profitability, however, what Motion Picture Group chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy’s intent was to make an original Warner Bros library classic for generations to come. Warner Bros won One Battle After Another in an auction over Sony.
