One Battle After Another: Questions & Answers with the Cast & Crew

Discover how Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film came to be, ahead of its cinema release on September 26.

In celebration of One Battle After Another’s imminent release, hear from Paul Thomas Anderson and the awe-inspiring cast about the production.
(And don’t worry, no spoilers here.)

**How did One Battle After Another come to be?**

Originally, Anderson started working on the story 20 years ago, with “the goal of writing an action car-chase movie.” Around the same time, he was also thinking about adapting Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. “The third idea floating around in my mind”, Anderson explains, “was a character, a female revolutionary. So really for 20 years I had been pulling on all these different threads, and in a way, none of them ever left me.”

Paul Thomas Anderson & Leonardo DiCaprio

Anderson is a celebrated filmmaker, with critically acclaimed films including Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999) and Inherent Vice (2014). One Battle After Another is undoubtedly his biggest project to date and sees him working with a stellar cast. Leading that cast is Leonardo DiCaprio.

This is the first time Anderson and DiCaprio have worked together, although they were in talks for the actor to star as the leading role in Boogie Nights (that didn't happen but DiCaprio suggested Mark Wahlberg for the role instead). The fact that One Battle After Another has now brought them together is very special, with DiCaprio admitting, “I've been wanting to work with him for 20-some-odd years now, and to be able to do this film about this subject at this point in time is very meaningful to me.”

For Anderson, the feeling was mutual, describing “working with Leo was amazing. It was everything that it had been cracked up to be.” As for the subject matter and timing, Anderson explains “this is the first film I’ve made in a long time that is contemporary, and that’s very freeing.”

The PTA Appeal

The rest of the film’s cast were eager to join the project too, including Benicio Del Toro, who was drawn to the script by three letters. “PTA. When Paul Thomas Anderson calls and says, ‘I got a script, and I got a part that I want you to play.’ Before I read it, I was in. Simple as that.” Similarly, Teyana Taylor was drawn to working with the filmmaker, explaining “it wasn't even a matter of if I was interested or not. I got a call from PTA, and that was already an instant ‘yes’.”

Introducing Chase Infiniti

One Battle After Another introduces the world to Chase Infiniti, starring in her first feature film. Working with Leonardo DiCaprio as father-daughter duo Bob and Willa taught her so much “about going deep into character dynamics and thinking beyond the surface level of a character, which I really appreciate.”

Anderson admitted that “as soon as we started filming her scenes with Leo, I thought she might be nervous, that I should keep an eye on her. But she wasn’t nervous at all. Or maybe she was, but she didn’t show it. She was instantly a professional. And the work we got from her that day was something quite magical.”

Infiniti describes stepping into the role as “very daunting at first, but we built a family on set, and I was so supported and so comforted by everybody...”

Friends first, colleagues second

For Sean Penn there were two friends involved which made signing up for One Battle After Another an easy decision. “Paul's a special filmmaker and writer, and has been a friend for a long time,” explains Penn. “I read (the script), and I started laughing at what he was approaching with the story right away. It was the timeliness of it, the freedom with which he wrote (and writes) was exciting, great characters all the way down the line. It was a page turner.”

Despite being enemies on screen, the second big pull was Penn’s friend, Leonardo DiCaprio. “We had never done anything together before and we’d been close since he was about 15 years old. I think I called Paul right away and said, you know, where do I go?”

Despite being friends for a long time, this was also Benicio del Toro’s first time working with DiCaprio. “If Hollywood was a university, we're from the same class in a way.” On playing opposite him, del Toro explains “it was just fun to work with someone like Leo, who's a great actor. All I had to do was catch what Leo was throwing my way. Basically, part of my job was to sit front row and enjoy watching Leo bring Bob to life.”

Chase and Sean / Willa and Lockjaw

To help shape their dynamic on screen, Anderson wanted Chase Infiniti and Sean Penn initially kept apart during production. Penn explains “we did some camera tests, but Paul did not want us to meet early on. And that goes to the relationship in the film. But I would see her around set sometimes, and I saw her in dailies, and I just thought, how did he find someone so perfect for this?”

Infiniti was equally impressed by Penn. “Lockjaw is what I would picture as my worst enemy coming to get me, and Sean brought such an intensity to him that truly was terrifying at times.” Adding that “between takes, it was cool to see how he would shift between himself and Lockjaw.”

One Stunt After Another

Impressively, the cast took on a lot of their own stunts, with Benicio del Toro and Leonardo DiCaprio doing almost all their stunt driving in the film. This included DiCaprio jumping out of a moving car, among other non-car related physical stunt work. He even jumped off the roof of a building, which took around a week to rehearse.

Both Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor performed their own physical stunts, which entailed martial arts training for Infiniti’s fight scenes. Taylor’s most intense stunt included a flat out run for three to four blocks before, having to hit her mark of jumping sideways into a minivan going at top speeds.

The film’s core

The cast and crew agree, at the core of the film are its timeless family themes. Anderson says that the central question to the film is “can this father find his daughter, and what does it mean to be a family?” Producer Sara Murphy adds “it's really about a father's love for his daughter and the lengths he’ll go to in order to protect her and save her.”

Even off-screen Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti developed a close bond, with DiCaprio reminiscing that the pair “got to spend some time in these great locations sort of hanging out, having coffee. We developed this—I don't want to say father-daughter dynamic because that's not what we were trying for off-screen—but this sense of humour and this way of teasing one another that infused its way into the movie and that I think is very authentic for this single dad who has to play the mother figure and the father figure.”

Final note from Sean Penn

When asked how he’d describe the film to someone, Sean Penn answered “I would just say it's a Paul Thomas Anderson film, and I wouldn't tell them a damn thing. Nothing. Just go see it.” And we think that’s the perfect note to end on.

Go and discover One Battle After Another for yourself, in cinemas September 26. Get your tickets here.