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In Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, Alana Haim gives one of the best debut performances in recent memory. The 30-year-old L.A.-based musician—one third of the Grammy-nominated band Haim alongside her older sisters Este and Danielle—plays Alana Kane, a listless 20-something from the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s who meets a charming 15-year-old actor named Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman). He asks her out to dinner and to her own surprise she agrees, marking the start of a joyous and frequently hilarious will-they-won’t-they romance. She acts as his chaperone when he travels to New York for work; Alana falls for Gary’s co-star Lance (Skyler Gisondo) but their relationship ends after a disastrous family dinner; and Gary and Alana go into business together, but despite their mutual attraction are never quite on the same page.
In one scene, after an ill-fated prank, the pair find themselves in a giant truck without gas and desperate to escape from the scene of the crime. Alana drives downhill in reverse and narrowly averts disaster, but Gary’s jubilant reaction to her saving the day makes it clear that he hasn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation. Later, when she signs up to work for the politician Joel Wachs, Gary mocks her dedication and makes plans to open a pinball arcade, proving once again that beneath the bravado, he’s still a child.
Haim is indisputably the heart of the film—an eye-rolling, sharp-tongued cynic who can also be startlingly vulnerable—and, unsurprisingly, Anderson wrote the character of Alana with her in mind, having already directed her in several of her band’s music videos. (Staggeringly, Haim’s mother was also Anderson’s art teacher at school, though he didn’t make the connection when he initially reached out to work with them.) When the auteur sent his soon-to-be leading lady the finished screenplay, she was flabbergasted that the 11-time Oscar nominee had not only written a part inspired by and named after her, but also wanted her to play it.
Now, many months later, with the film in theaters and a spate of critics’ prizes under her belt, the shock still hasn’t worn off for Haim. When I speak to her on Zoom, on the eve of the BAFTAs and Critics Choice Awards, where she’s nominated for two best-actress prizes, she’s buzzing with nervous energy, quick to laugh, and forever resisting the urge to pinch herself.
Below, she tells Vogue about the real-life stories that made it into the script, how she survived a two-month stint at truck school, and the beloved accessory she stole from the set.
Vogue: So, seeing as your mom was Paul’s art teacher, did you hear stories about him growing up?
Alana Haim: A bit! My mom was in her early 20s and she got this job at a private school and Paul was one of her students. By the time I was around, she’d stopped so I never really saw her teaching style, but when Boogie Nights would be on TV, she’d be like, “I taught him!” Now, I’ve probably heard more stories about my mom from Paul than the other way around [laughs]. Paul said my mom was the cool teacher. She was a hippie, brought her guitar into school, and she’d let kids come in during lunch to paint, use clay, and be creative, and she’d play songs while they did it. She gets mad at me because in one interview, I said that she’d said that she helped Paul be creative. She was like, “Paul’s going to think that I’m taking credit! Why are you saying these things?” [laughs].
You ended up working with Paul on lots of your music videos, and then he sends you a script with a character named Alana. Did you know immediately that he wanted you to play her?
So, that was obvious to Paul and he thought I knew what was going on. But I would never just assume, like, “Oh, [flips hair] her name’s Alana, so I have this role.” That’s not my style. Paul’s one of the greatest directors of all time, so to think that he’d write a part for me is crazy. I called him and I was like, “What’s with this Alana girl? She seems funny.” He said, “Will you play Alana?” Obviously I said yes, but it was mind-blowing. I’m still not over it.
You’ve said that you recognized some of the stories in the script because they were similar to stories you’d told Paul. What were these stories?
One was the Shabbat dinner scene. [Editor’s note: In the film, Alana brings Lance, the guy she’s dating, to meet her parents and sisters, and he declines to say a prayer at the table because he is an atheist.] In real life, it was Passover, not Shabbat. My sister Danielle had a boyfriend who [we thought] was Jewish, but I guess he was an atheist. We didn’t know that until he refused to read the Haggadah. What’s in the movie is similar to what actually happened, but the silence went on a little bit longer in real life [laughs]. There were other things, too. I had this monologue about Bat Mitzvah season but it got cut because it was too long. There was a lot that got cut from the movie.
I hope we get to see those scenes at some point. So, after you said yes to the part, is it true that you went to truck school for two months to prepare for that terrifying scene where you drive backwards?
I did. When I read the truck scene in the script, I was like, “It’s the movies! They’re going to get someone else to do it.” Then Paul was like, “Oh no, you’re driving. You’re doing the whole thing.” I’m a terrible driver. At truck school, my driving instructors were very patient with me. There was one point where I got so nervous that I let go of the wheel and was like [screams]. My instructor was like, “Okay, next time don’t do that because we’ll crash.” Paul’s putting together the DVD extras for the movie now and it has footage of me in truck school. Then, on set, I only realized on the day what it meant to film in a truck—there was piping around the whole thing, lights, cameras, and we were shooting down really thin streets. It’s insane that I did that. Afterwards, the stunt coordinators were like, “You should do this for a living!” I went from being the worst driver in the world to being Tom Cruise.
That scene is, of course, carefully choreographed, but I know there were other moments where you were able to improvise. Tell me about those.
Even though I had never acted before, Paul loved it when I followed my gut. If I could add something that would make people laugh, that would excite him. So the end of the Shabbat dinner scene is one example. What was supposed to happen originally was that after Lance refuses to make a prayer on the bread, I take him to his car and I cry. I say, “How could you do that?” I physically could not do it [laughs]. I did it four times and it just came out so angry. Paul was like, “You have to lose this battle and we have to see what happens when she loses.” But when I came out, I was like a bulldog. Finally, Paul was like, “I should let you run free.” I said I had an idea but I didn’t tell anybody what it was. I walked out and said, “What does your penis look like?” In the distance, I hear Paul laughing hysterically. I said, “Is it circumcised?” Lance said yes and I said, “Then you’re a fucking Jew!” I looked over to Paul and he had tears in his eyes.
I had ideas for other scenes, too. In the bit towards the end when Gary and Alana argue at his house, we did the scene a couple times and Paul said we could try things. I said to Cooper, “You’re talking about pinball machines. I’m a politician!” Paul laughed so much. There’s also a slap that was my idea and not in the script. Cooper was completely caught off guard.
Cooper is brilliant in the film. Did you meet for the first time on set?
I actually met Cooper when he was 14. My sisters and I were trying to convince Paul to do a music video for us but he had no time so he was like, “Come to the editing house for Phantom Thread and maybe we’ll figure something out.” He got called away and Cooper [the son of Paul Thomas Anderson’s frequent collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman] was there. Paul was like, “Can you do something with Cooper? He’s hungry.” We didn’t grow up with brothers, so we were like, “What do we do with you? Do we take you to the park?” We tried to be cool older sisters so we took him out for sushi and Cooper was Gary. He was so charismatic, so engaging, ordering for us and asking us questions like, “What are you guys doing with your life?” We were like, “Who is this kid?” So, when Paul was trying to find Gary and said, “What about Cooper?” I was like, “Of course!”
Everything about Licorice Pizza is such a joy—the script, that sun-dappled ’70s setting—but I especially loved the costumes. Which pieces were your favorites? Your ring always caught my eye.
I still wear it! [Holds up her hand.] I stole it [laughs]. It was gold when we started filming and now it’s silver—it kind of looks like a ring you’d get from a gumball machine. All of the costumes were incredible: the bell-bottoms, the T-shirts with slogans on them, that [floral] dress Alana wears when she first meets up with Gary at a restaurant. I wear that one in the scenes with Joel Wachs, too. We decided that was the dress that made her feel most professional. I also love those boots. But, the dress I loved the most was the red one with the white collar. It was so funny. I looked like a doll. It was one of the first costumes I tried on with the costume designer, Mark Bridges, and we both couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t get to keep any of those sadly, but I did get to keep this blue robe I wear, which was amazing.
The film’s been a big hit, you’ve won so many critics’ prizes, and now you’re up for a BAFTA and a Critics Choice Award. What’s been the craziest thing about awards season so far?
I really have been asking myself, “How did I get here?” Getting the BAFTA nomination was probably the most important thing for me, because I’ve always felt like I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today without the U.K. We were an American band and no one cared about us in America. When we came here, people embraced us instantaneously. So, I’m incredibly indebted and that’s not lost on me.
You’ll be going on tour again soon, but are you going to keep acting too? Would you want to do something that combines music and acting?
Yeah? If I said no to things, then I wouldn’t be here right now.
Licorice Pizza is in theaters and on VOD now.
