Which Actors Have Worked With Paul Thomas Anderson the Most?
The king of the San Fernando Valley has directed some of the best performances of the last half-century.
Not to be confused with Resident Evil movie franchise helmer Paul W.S. Anderson, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has one of the most distinctive resumes of any American filmmaker today. Many of his films center on his birthplace of Los Angeles, or his childhood home the San Fernando Valley, just north of L.A. proper. But Anderson is able to get remarkable mileage out of repeatedly using Southern California as a setting, perhaps moreso than any other living director. He’s used SoCal to explore everything from the oil boom in the early 20th century with There Will Be Blood to the porn industry of the 1970s with Boogie Nights. His epic Magnolia uses the San Fernando setting as a mirror to reflect on human cruelty, toxic masculinity, forgiveness and divine providence.
Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA if you nasty) has consistently made some of the most profound movies of the past 30 odd years, while also generating some of the wildest headlines in the film business. This is a man who Daniel Day-Lewis entrusted with directing his swan song, yet also reportedly made Fiona Apple swear off of cocaine forever through his braggadocious behavior. He currently has a total of 11 Oscar nominations to his name, and he also famously wished cancer upon another one of Hollywood’s top auteurs. Now that is a man who contains multitudes.
One of PTA’s most distinctive characteristics is his usage of interesting cast members. His films often use a mix of top-tier Tinseltown leading stars as well as distinguished character actors, which feel finely selected to fill out the background cast of whatever time period or subgenre he is currently inhabiting. He’s coaxed career-topping dramatic performances out of actors like Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler, as well as offered actors like Burt Reynolds a chance to redefine themselves decades into their Hollywood tenure. He’s created some of the most profoundly unlikeable characters ever put to screen, such as Daniel Plainview, and then turned around and delivered sensitive romances packed to the brim with charming performances in Licorice Pizza.
But which actors does he like to work with the most?
Rules for Inclusion
We’re only looking at actors who have appeared in two or more feature films. Every actor is listed in alphabetical order (by first name) within their respective sections, to keep it consistent with the data visualizations below. The names of each actor are links to their page on IMDB. In the future, whenever Paul Thomas Anderson makes another film (which is sure to have some returning players), I will update the list and visualizations in this article.
As always, be sure to let me know in the comments if I’ve missed anyone!
Five Films
Philip Seymour Hoffman — Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), The Master (2012). Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who tragically passed away ten years ago this February from what was ruled an accidental overdose, starred in five Paul Thomas Anderson films, more than any other actor. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in PTA’s The Master (2012). Later, his son Cooper Hoffman would make his acting debut in PTA’s Licorice Pizza (2021).
Four Films
John C. Reilly — Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Licorice Pizza (2021). Reilly appears only for a brief cameo in Licorice Pizza, where he plays someone dressed as Herman Munster at a sort of local Comic-Con style fair.
Melora Walters — Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), voice cameo in The Master (2012)
Three Films
Luis Guzman — Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Philip Baker Hall — Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999). Hall also starred in PTA’s debut short film Cigarettes & Coffee in 1993.
Two Films
Daniel Day Lewis — There Will Be Blood (2007), Phantom Thread (2017)
Don McManus — Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Guy Richardson — There Will Be Blood (2007), Licorice Pizza (2021). Richardson is also credited on IMDB as working as an additional crew-member on Licorice Pizza. Amongst his other credited crew roles on IMDB is David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), which is notable as PTA was once quoted as saying about that film, “It’s just unbearable. I wish David Fincher testicular cancer, for all of his jokes about it, I wish him testicular fucking cancer.”
Joaquin Phoenix — The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014)
Julianne Moore — Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999)
Maya Rudolph — Inherent Vice (2014), Licorice Pizza (2021)
Paul F. Tompkins — Magnolia (1999), There Will Be Blood (2007)
Thomas Jane — Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999)
William H. Macy — Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999)
Special Mentions
Alana Haim — Paul Thomas Anderson has been directing music videos for the band Haim since 2017. In Licorice Pizza, Alana Haim appears as the co-lead of the film, as a character named “Alana Kane”. Her sisters and bandmates Este and Danielle Haim also appear in the film, as do their parents. Alana is currently slated to appear in PTA’s next (as-of-yet-untitled) film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. The film also stars fellow musician Teyana Taylor. Also returning are several other PTA recurring players including Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro.
Joanna Newsom — Singer/songwriter (and wife of Andy Samberg) Joanna Newsom has made a few appearances in film and tv over the years, but her most substantial role is that of the narrator of Inherent Vice, also briefly appearing onscreen in the film as the character Sortilège. Not long after the film’s release, PTA also directed two music videos for her album Divers.
Everyone in Hollywood (and their family members)— Licorice Pizza (2021). As mentioned above, Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) stars in Licorice Pizza, which pulls from some autobiographical elements of Anderson’s life growing up in the San Fernando Valley and beginning to make his way to Hollywood. Cooper’s character Gary Valentine is partially inspired by PTA’s old friend Gary Goetz, who eventually went on to co-found the production along with Tom Hanks. Gary Goetz was good friends with the late Jonathan Demme (director of Stop Making Sense and Silence of the Lambs), whose grandson Dexter Demme briefly appears in Licorice as “cherry bomb kid”. As a way of paying homage to his early days in the film industry, Licorice is chock full of other directors, musicians, and family members of other Hollywood professionals, some of the most notable being singer/songwriter Tom Waits, director Benny Safdie and composer Mick Giacchino (son of Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino). Additionally, Steven Spielberg’s daughters Sasha and Destry Allen appear in the film, as do the children of Maya Rudolph, who plays the role of Gale in the film. Leonardo DiCaprio’s father George DiCaprio also appears as Mr. Jack. The younger DiCaprio is playing the lead in the next PTA film, due out sometime in 2025.
Other Frequent Collaborators
Cassandra Kulukundis — One of the essential players in PTA’s wheelhouse is undoubtedly Cassandra Kulukundis, who has been his go-to casting director for every single film since Magnolia (1999). Without her work casting his movies, it’s very possible this article would have never been written at all!
Jonny Greenwood — Ever since There Will Be Blood, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has scored every one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies. Greenwood was famously not nominated for an Oscar for Blood, as he was disqualified for reusing a piece of his that was previously used in a different film he had scored. He was later nominated for his work on PTA’s Phantom Thread (2017). PTA has also directed many Radiohead music videos and other material Radiohead-adjacent projects, including a documentary film called Junun which saw Greenwood traveling to Rajasthan, India, to perform and record music there with local musicians.
Robert Elswit — Legendary cinematographer Robert Elswit (Good Night and Good Luck, Nightcrawler) won his one and only Oscar for his stunning work on There Will Be Blood. He has served as the director of photography on six PTA films in total, although he hasn’t collaborated with the director since Inherent Vice (2014).
Up Next
What’s your favorite performance in a Paul Thomas Anderson film? Sound off in the comments.
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