Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most unique, directors of the last 25 years. One of those where when he releases a new film, we must go and see it in cinemas right away. Anderson loves to work with some actors over and over again, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Here are 10 actors we would love for him to use in one of his future movies, and make part of his group of repeat collaborators.
10 Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen knows his brand in Hollywood and has used it wisely to create the kind of movies he wants to see. It’s pretty unusual that other directors cast him as an actor in projects he isn’t involved in writing, producing, or directing. Spielberg has been the last one to so in The Fabelmans. Punch Drunk Love proved Anderson has an eye to see something different in a comic actor and use it to create something new, which proves that a performer can do much more (Adam Sandler’s performance in Uncut Gems wouldn’t exist without Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love). We believe he could do something similar with Rogen, and show a different side from the (usually high) slacker he still plays in films.
9 Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand needs no presentation. She’s one of the few actresses with three Academy Awards for best lead performance (she also has one as a producer for Nomadland). Her work is impressive, and her 1996 alone is better than some actors' whole careers. For all those reasons, we believe McDormand and Anderson could make an incredible film together. McDormand knows how to squeeze everything from the characters she plays, and Anderson loves to create obtuse, dark characters, so a movie where she plays the lead role could be something for the ages. Together they could create something as layered and contradictory as Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview, and who wouldn’t want to see that?
8 Elliot Gould
Elliot Gould might be seen now as an old actor who most people know as Ross and Monica’s father in Friends, or as the old guy in the Oceans' franchise. Surprisingly, for those who only know him for those roles, in the '60s he was one of the most sought-out actors in Hollywood to lead a film. Especially for Robert Altman. Anderson is one of Altman’s biggest fans (and even helped him finish his last movie when Altman was sick), so it would be a beautiful pass of the torch if the Boogie Nights director used one of the most representative actors from his dearest colleague and friend in one of his films.
7 Daniel Kaluuya
Daniel Kaluuya is one of the most interesting actors working today. He can play all genres and kinds of characters, or have a supporting role in someone else’s story. That’s why we believe a collaboration between him and Anderson would be pure gold. Be it as a lead character as strange and frightening as Daniel Plainview, or Reynolds Woodcock (yeah, we believe Kaluuya could be the new Day-Lewis in Anderson’s hands), or a supporting weird character in the vein of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s roles in the first Anderson’s films. Kaluuya has the range to do both, and Anderson could explore the actor's duality between drama and comedy to the movie's advantage.
6 Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph can sing, dance, and is one of the greatest comedians that have been on Saturday Night Live this century. She’s also been Paul Thomas Anderson's partner for more than 20 years, and they’ve never worked together. What would that look like? We would like to see it. As Rudolph is an incredible actress, her performance could be something different from what she’s used to, as it would be her partner, the one that might know her best, who could extract something new and surprising from her performance.
5 Bjork
Bjork is a one-in-a-million singer with a unique acting career. Anderson has used musicians as actors before, helping them show their range. Bjork is usually mercurial and some of Anderson’s characters hide their feelings, but we believe their collaboration could work best if Anderson used her as a character who wears her heart on her sleeve. It would be a change of pace for her, and some of the director and writer’s more impactful moments have been with that kind of character, so it would be something interesting to see her play.
4 Saoirse Ronan
Universal Pictures
Focus Features
Saoirse Ronan has already been nominated for four Oscars; she’s not even 30 years old, and she loves collaborating with interesting directors. After seeing Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, Anderson only had great words for the actress: “You see this Irish actress be somebody from California, and more specifically from Sacramento, and you go, ‘How did she do that? That’s the best feeling when you see a magic trick in front of you and all the things you know about being a director go away.” With all that in mind, we can only imagine how fun a collaboration between these two could be, and even more, if Anderson didn’t write a period piece, and had a story in the present, as he used to do when he started.
3 Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron has been an action star, a fantastic dramatic actress, and someone who isn’t afraid to take tough roles. Some of her best performances show that dark side, playing characters who have as many faults as qualities. That’s why a collaboration between her and Anderson is so intriguing, and their work together could be epic. Anderson’s first movies didn’t have the greatest of roles for women, but he’s improved greatly in that area, and now he could write a role that suited Theron’s many, many acting talents.
2 Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio only works with outstanding directors, that’s why it’s strange he hasn’t collaborated with Anderson yet. The actor’s charisma, and also his commitment to playing weird characters in the last few years, makes him a perfect actor for an Anderson lead. Someone who can be a bit removed from most “normal” people. DiCaprio might be the director's white whale, as he wanted him for the role of Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights.
Anderson told Smartless the actor almost made the film: “That is very true, that I asked Leo to be in Boogie Nights, and he spent many, many months agonizing and debating about it. (…) He had a choice to make—either to do Titanic or to do Boogie Nights, and he chose to do Titanic. Which, in the long run, catapulted him into this massive worldwide fame, but on the other hand, I think possibly—we laugh about it now—but he regrets missing the experience and doing it.”
1 Robert Downey Jr.
Paul Thomas Anderson revered Robert Downey Sr. and has an almost sibling rivalry with Robert Downey Jr. The Iron Man actor has even admitted he was a bit jealous of the relationship between the director and his father. That’s why a collaboration between the two would be so interesting. They’ve known each other for decades and know how to push each other’s buttons, creating a unique environment where both could make even better work than usual. Yeah, that environment could also become toxic, but we believe both are too talented to not take advantage of each other's genius.
They almost worked together in Inherent Vice, but in the end, Joaquin Phoenix was more suited for the role. It would also be a way to see Downey’s prowess as an actor, after many years. His Iron Man was great, but it’s time to see him give an Academy Award-worthy performance, and Anderson could be the perfect director to help him do it.