One Battle After Another with Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg (Ep. 567)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Paul Thomas Anderson discusses his new film, One Battle After Another, with fellow Director Steven Spielberg in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, he discusses how he worked with his Actors to bring to life the distinct characters they inhabited, why Vistavision was the best format to capture the story, and how he discovered the ending sequence by exploring the location. The film follows Bob Ferguson, a former militant now living a quiet life in hiding with his daughter Willa. When Willa goes missing, Bob must track her down with the help of his fellow revolutionaries and battle the consequences of his past.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The problem with loving a book so much when you go to adapt it is that you have to be much rougher on a book to adapt it.
0:06.4	You have to kind of not be gentle.
0:10.0	So I struggled for years to try to adapt it.
0:12.8	And I kept the things that I loved the most about the book.
0:15.7	And the things I loved the most was the father, daughter story.
0:19.8	I think even before I had kids, I kind of felt a
0:23.6	connection to how this father felt about his daughter.
0:49.1	I Hello, and welcome back to the Director's Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:58.7	In this episode, a washed-up revolutionary searches for his missing daughter and director Paul Thomas Anderson's comedic adventure, one battle after another.
1:05.9	The film follows Bob Ferguson, a former militant now living a quiet life in hiding with his daughter, Willa.
1:11.6	But when Willa goes missing, Bob must track her down with the help of his fellow revolutionaries and battle the consequences of his past.
1:14.6	In addition to one battle after another, Anderson's other directorial credits include the feature films, Phantom Thread,
1:21.6	Inherent Vice, The Master, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, Foggy Nights, and Hard Eight.
1:29.8	He is a two-time nominee for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature
1:34.3	film.
1:35.1	For 2007's, there will be Blood, and 2021's Licorice Pizza.
1:41.8	Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles, Anderson spoke with director Steven Spielberg about filming one battle after another.
1:51.0	Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.
1:53.4	Thank you. Hi, Paul.
2:06.0	Hi, Steven.
2:07.7	So nice to be here with you, not talking about TCM.
2:14.7	What an insane movie you made.
	...

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