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PUNCH-DRUNK
LOVE PRESS KIT
Until
the day I die I won’t know why
I knew he needed me.
It could be fantasy, oh.
Or maybe it’s because . . .
He needs me.
Punch-Drunk
Love, the critically acclaimed comedy for which Paul Thomas Anderson
won the Best Director honor at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, will open
in the UK on February 7, 2003 through Columbia TriStar Films. Revolution
Studios and New Line Cinema present a JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company
Production, distributed by Columbia Pictures.
ABOUT THE
PRODUCTION
The genesis
of Punch-Drunk Love came two years ago in a Time magazine
article about David Phillips, a University of California civil engineer
who stumbled upon a lucrative frequent-flyer promotion. Now known to
the entire airline industry as the Pudding Guy, Phillips had accumulated
1.25 million miles by purchasing 12,150 cups of Healthy Choice pudding
for a mere $3000.
 So
intrigued by the story was writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson that he
asked to meet with Phillips, an encounter that provided initial inspiration
for the character of Barry Egan. After optioning the rights to Phillips’
story, Anderson began drafting a straightforward, if offbeat, romantic
comedy. “After Magnolia, which was a huge, dark, challenging movie,
I think Paul wanted to make something that was contained, uplifting and
sweet,” says JoAnne Sellar, who, beginning with Boogie Nights,
has produced Anderson’s last three films.
As it happens,
Anderson already had someone in mind to play Barry. “Paul came to me
one day and said ‘I’m writing this for Adam Sandler.’ He’s been a huge
fan of Adam’s for quite some time and wanted to create something specifically
for him.” It was the same approach that Anderson would take to the character
of Lena, whom he created for British actress Emily Watson.
Fortuitously,
Watson was eager for a change of pace following her intensely dramatic
roles in Angela’s Ashes and Hilary and Jackie. “Paul took
me to Art’s Deli and told me that he was writing something for Adam Sandler.
He asked me what I wanted to do next and I said, ‘I don’t want to do anything
more like cry or die.’ We had a great afternoon, just chatting away;
of course I didn’t know at this stage that he’d already written me a part.”
Once she’d
finally read the script, Watson was fascinated by the prospect of playing
a character with so little history. “I’m so used to having a wasting
disease or a special talent, something that I can really get my head into
and work on. Paul said to me, ‘If you find yourself working on this in
any way that you’ve done before, throw it out the window.’ He wanted
it to be something completely fresh for me as an actor.”
According to
Sellar, this “never been there, never done that” philosophy shaped the
entire production. “The challenge was to create something different by
taking a more intuitive, uncharted approach than on our previous films.
What Paul said to us, essentially, was, ‘I’m not sure where we’ll begin,
but let’s not begin here, in this familiar place.” Which meant
that we all – Paul, the actors, the crew – were trying to relearn our
jobs in some fundamental way.”
Sandler and
Watson were soon joined by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman and Mary
Lynn Rajskub, after which Anderson came to casting director Cassandra
Kulukundis with a novel idea for filling out the remaining roles. “The
idea was to emphasize the unique place that Adam and Emily’s characters
occupy in the film by surrounding them with non-actors,” she says. “This
was especially important in the case of Barry’s sisters. Paul didn’t
want to hire actors because he wanted to capture the raw awkwardness of
family, where people nag and talk over each other and don’t wait for their
cues.”
By “harassing
people on the street,” taking phone numbers and generating word-of-mouth,
Kulukundis was able to amass an eclectic group of non-actors for the cast,
including a restaurant manager and several emergency room nurses. Best
of all, she found an actual family to portray Barry’s. “I went to meet
with these two sisters and in talking discovered that they had two cousins.
So of the seven sisters in the film, six are non-actors and four are related.
It was kind of crazy, especially given that we asked some of the women
to bring their husbands along, but they all gelled perfectly. They had
no fear.”
In the course
of scouring Utah and Los Angeles for two non-actors to play Barry’s dogged
pursuers, Kulukundis happened upon yet another family that would alter
the film’s complexion. “I met with this guy from Utah who was in L.A.
doing construction, and he mentioned that he had brothers, all of whom
are blonde and Mormon.” The script was re-written to accommodate the
four brothers pursuing the man with seven sisters.
To give his
creative team a visual starting point before the onset of production,
Anderson screened a mixed bag of films, ranging from Ernie Kovacs’ short
films to Help! to Astaire & Rogers’ Carefree. “We watched
a whole gamut and took a little bit of inspiration from each,” says costume
designer Mark Bridges. “It was all shaken together and then used by Paul
very discriminately.”
Bridges took
his cues from 1940s-era MGM musicals when creating the wardrobe for the
main characters, most notably in regard to Barry’s blue suit. “Designing
with blues is not something you usually do because they’re so sensitive
on film. But it worked very well for us because Paul was really interested
in replicating the feeling of Technicolor. If you look at On the Town
or An American in Paris, they weren’t afraid to use color then.”
A similar approach
to color was used for Lena’s clothing, though her look was softened with
simple skirts and cashmere sweater sets. Explains Bridges, “I like the
idea of dressing the romantic leads in a matching style. Here it reinforces
what’s obvious to everyone but Barry and Lena: that they belong together.”
Punch-Drunk
Love was filmed entirely on location in the San Fernando Valley, Utah
and Oahu. Among the wide range of sites used were a cavernous San Fernando
warehouse that was transformed into Barry’s place of business, a Northridge
residence that served as one of the sister’s homes and a Pomona mattress
store that doubled for the Utah-based center of operation for Philip Hoffman’s
character. Comments production designer William Arnold, “Paul latches
on to certain places and sees a truthfulness in allowing them to be what
they just plain are. So we didn’t change much in any of the locations
except the house in Northridge, where we had to knock out a couple of
walls to accommodate the camera angles. Luckily we were able to find
people who were willing to play ball with us.”
For Barry and
Lena’s apartments, the production team searched the Valley for two of
the more nondescript places they could find. “Both apartments are generic,
but for different reasons,” explains Arnold. “Because it’s not really
clear where she comes from, we didn’t want to leave any clues about Lena’s
history. Whereas Barry’s place is reflective of the blandness in his
life, so there is no passion showing on his walls or in his furniture.”
The Oahu locations
gave the design team an opportunity to fully embrace the film’s Technicolor
influences. Says Arnold, “Paul wanted Hawaii to be the antithesis of
minimalism, so we were looking for gorgeous sunsets and flowers, anything
that would make it a romantic escape for Barry and Lena. We managed to
find a great hotel that required virtually no dressing, in a beautiful
spot, with beautiful furniture.”
As with all
of Anderson’s films, music plays a vital role in the aesthetic tone of
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. “Paul makes movies with the music already fixed
in his head – it’s a huge, integral part of his work,” says Sellar. So
integral to this project, in fact, that Anderson asked friend and frequent
collaborator Jon Brion (Magnolia) to create a temporary score to
be played on set during production. Explains the composer, “Paul suggested
different tempos, then my engineer and I recorded a series of 10-minute
ensemble percussion pieces that the actors listened to between takes to
give them an idea of the scene’s rhythm.” The temporary tracks were created
using different drums, rare instruments and treated piano, a process developed
by John Cage in which an object, such as a screw, is placed on or around
a string to alter the vibration, duration and tonality.
Ultimately
the percussive elements, as well as some extra overdubs, were shortened
and edited to film, an approach that all but erased the line between scoring
and sound design. Explains Brion, “I would give Paul and [editor] Leslie
Jones piles of very short, 3-5 second pieces that, while related to the
DNA of the score, were essentially sound bites which they could place
at their discretion. So it was a very organic process involving a lot
of people.”
Punch-Drunk
Love is rated R for strong language including a scene of sexual dialogue.
It’s
like a dime-a-dance,
I’ll take a chance, I will
Because he needs me.
No one ever asked, before
Because they never needed me.
But he does.
(But I do.)
Maybe it’s because he’s so alone.
Maybe it’s because he’s never had a home.
He needs me.
ABOUT THE
CAST
ADAM SANDLER
– Barry Egan
Adam Sandler
has enjoyed phenomenal success in the entertainment industry as a writer,
producer, director, actor and musician after gaining international fame
as a cast member of television’s Saturday Night Live.
Born in Brooklyn,
New York, and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Sandler’s first brush
with comedy came at age seventeen, with a spontaneous performance at a
Boston comedy club. From then on, he was hooked, performing regularly
in comedy clubs throughout the state while earning a degree in Fine Arts
from New York University.
Sandler made
his motion picture debut in Coneheads, opposite Dan Aykroyd and
Jane Curtin, and has gone on to become an almost self-contained mini studio
involved in all aspects of film production. In fact, Happy Gilmore
was one of the most successful movies of 1996. With a budget of just
12 million dollars, it grossed over 40 million dollars at the box office,
and 35 million dollars on video. The Wedding Singer was the first
box office hit of 1998, with an opening weekend gross of over 22 million
dollars, followed by The Waterboy, which opened to nearly 40 million
dollars.
Sandler collaborated
with writer Tim Herlihy on the screenplays for Happy Gilmore,
Little Nicky, Billy Madison, Big Daddy, and the smash hits The
Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, all of which, he starred in.
Billy Madison is a cult classic for college kids across the country,
where students have “Billy” nights and “Sandler” Festivals.
 Sandler
served as executive producer of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Animal,
Joe Dirt, The Master of Disguise and The Hot Chick due out
next year.
He recently
completed writing, producing and lending his voice and musical talents
to an animated musical feature, Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights
scheduled for release this holiday season. He is currently filming the
feature Anger Management opposite Jack Nicholson and Marisa Tomei.
During breaks
from his busy filming schedule, Sandler spends time in the recording studio.
Several of his comedy albums on Warner Bros. Records have gone multi-platinum
and collectively, have sold over 6 million copies to date. Early this
year, Sandler launched AdamSandler.com. This site is updated weekly with
mini movies, featuring Sandler, the staff from his production company,
Happy Madison, and his dog Meatball, in their daily routines.
EMILY WATSON
– Lena Leonard
Emily Watson’s
remarkable screen debut in Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves
won her great critical acclaim for her compelling portrayal of obsessive
love exalted by idealistic innocence. Watson garnered numerous accolades
for her performance, including Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations
and the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Watson was
recently seen in Robert Altman’s critically acclaimed ensemble drama Gosford
Park. She also starred as the title character in Alan Parker’s screen
adaptation of Frank McCourt’s celebrated book Angela’s Ashes, and
she was nominated for an Academy Award®, Golden Globe and SAG Award for
her role in Hilary and Jackie. In addition, she led an
ensemble cast that included Nick Nolte and Dermott Mulroney in Alan Rudolph’s
romantic comedy-caper Trixie.
She will soon
be seen in Thomas Harris’s thriller Red Dragon, the prequel to
Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, co-starring with Ralph
Fiennes, Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins.
PHILIP SEYMOUR
HOFFMAN – Dean Trumbell
Philip Seymour
Hoffman’s most recent film credits are: David Mamet’s State and Main;
Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous; Joel Schumacher’s Flawless;
Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; as well as the soon-to-be-released
Love Liza, Owning Mahowny, and Red Dragon. Hoffman
has appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson’s three previous films, Magnolia,
Boogie Nights, and Hard Eight.
Hoffman’s other
film credits include: Todd Solondz’s Happiness; Patch Adams;
the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski; Brad Anderson’s Next Stop
Wonderland; Jan De Bont’s Twister; Scent of a Woman;
Nobody’s Fool; The Getaway, and When a Man Loves a Woman.
On Broadway,
Hoffman starred in the latest production of Sam Shepard’s “True West”
for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in dual roles. Other stage
work includes “Defying Gravity” at the American Place Theater, “The Merchant
of Venice” directed by Peter Sellars, and the Off-Broadway production
of Mark Ravenhihll’s “Shopping and Fucking”.
Hoffman has
directed “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” and “In Arabia, We’d All be Kings”,
both by Stephen Adly Guirgis, for his New York-based theater company LAByrinth.
He has just moved the production of “Jesus…” to London’s West End. At
the end of 2001, Hoffman directed the New York premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s
play “The Glory of Living” at Manhattan Class Company.
LUIS GUZMAN
– Lance
Luis Guzman
recently starred in The Count of Monte Cristo, directed by Kevin
Reynolds, and has leading roles in such upcoming releases as Welcome
to Collinwood with George Clooney and Pluto Nash with Eddie
Murphy. Currently, he is co-starring with Ed Burns in director James
Foley’s Confidence, after which he will begin filming Anger
Management with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson.
A former social
worker, Guzman has become a well-known leading and character actor, appearing
in nearly two dozen films, including three for Sidney Lumet: Guilty
as Sin, Family Business and Q&A; two for Brian De Palma:
Snake Eyes and Carlito’s Way; and three for Steven Soderbergh:
Traffic, The Limey and Out of Sight. His other films include
Mr. Wonderful, Black Rain, The Hard Way, Cadillac Man, True Believer
and Crocodile Dundee II.
MARY LYNN
RAJSKUB – Elizabeth
Promising young
actress Mary Lynn Rajskub (pronounced “rice-cub”) has incorporated her
comedic style and talent into nearly every medium. Whether it is television,
movies, theater, stand-up comedy or even music videos, Rajskub has begun
to make a name for herself.
Perhaps best
known as a series regular on “The Larry Sanders Show,” Rajskub’s television
resume includes appearances in such shows as the “Gilmore Girls,” “The
Downer Channel,” “Veronicas Closet,” “The Secret Lives of Men” and “Mr.
Show.”
On the big
screen, Rajskub has also made her way into a number of youth-oriented
movies, such as the recent teen comedies Sweet Home Alabama, The Anniversary
Party, Dude, Where’s My Car? and Road Trip. Her other film
credits include Magnolia and Man on the Moon.
ABOUT THE
CREW
PAUL THOMAS
ANDERSON – Writer/Director
 A
native of Studio City, California, Paul Thomas Anderson began his career
as a production assistant on music videos in both Los Angeles and New
York. He then wrote and directed the short film Cigarettes And Coffee,
which premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival in the Shorts Program
II. From that, Anderson developed his first feature, Hard Eight
(AKA Sydney), which screened at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival
and in Un Certain Regard at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
The following
year, Anderson formed the Ghoulardi Film Company with producer JoAnne
Sellar, through which he produced his second film, New Line’s Boogie
Nights, which opened to great critical acclaim in 1998 and
went on to garner three Academy Award nominations. He returned in late
1999 with Magnolia, winner of the prestigious Golden Bear at the
Berlin International Film Festival. It also received three Academy Award
nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, garnered Tom Cruise a
Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and was named Best Film of the
Year by FIPRESCI, an eminent association of international press. In addition,
Aimee Mann’s soundtrack received three Grammy nominations and an Oscar®
nomination for Best Song.
JOANNE SELLAR
– Producer
Punch-Drunk
Love is JoAnne Sellar’s third pairing with Paul Thomas Anderson.
She also collaborated with Anderson on Boogie Nights and Magnolia.
Most recently,
Sellar produced Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming’s critically acclaimed
The Anniversary Party. Her repertoire of feature film producing
credits began with the sci-fi thriller Hardware. She went on to
produce such films as Richard Stanley’s Dust Devil, George Sluizer’s
Dark Blood, and Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions.
Prior to turning
her talent over to film, Sellar had a successful career producing music
videos for the likes of U2, Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop. Her diverse
experience also extends into television, where she co-produced “Red, Hot,
& Blue,” a worldwide tribute to Cole Porter benefiting AIDS research.
In addition
to keeping pace with a full production schedule, Sellar heads the Ghoulardi
Film Company in conjunction with Anderson.
DANIEL LUPI
– Producer
Punch-Drunk
Love is Daniel Lupi’s fourth pairing with Paul Thomas Anderson. He
co-produced Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia.
Most recently,
Lupi co-produced Catch Me If You Can, the Steven Spielberg directed
film starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. His other feature film
credits include Andrew Niccol’s Simone, Ole Bornedal’s Nightwatch,
Wes Craven’s Scream 2, and the sci-fi thriller Imposter.
Lupi’s credits
also extend to the television arena, where he was the production manager
on numerous American Playhouse productions. He has also worked
extensively in the commercial and music video realms.
ROBERT ELSWIT
– Director of Photography
Robert Elswit
has been the director of photography for over twenty films in his career,
and Punch-Drunk Love marks his fourth collaboration with Paul Thomas
Anderson.
Collaborating
with Hollywood’s top directors for his entire career, Elswit established
his reputation in such early films as Rob Reiner’s The Sure Thing.
He has since gone on to work in a diverse array of genres, photographing
such films as David Mamet’s Heist, Don Roos’ Bounce and
Joel Schumacher’s 8MM.
LESLIE JONES
– Editor
Punch-Drunk
Love marks Leslie Jones’s first collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson.
Most recently, she acted as editor on Roman Coppola’s upcoming CQ.
Jones received
an Academy Award® nomination for her work on Terrence Malick’s The
Thin Red Line (shared with Billy Weber and Saar Klein). She also
received an A.C.E. nomination for her work on the documentary Wild
Bill: Hollywood Maverick. Other feature films include Woman on
Top and Murder at 1600.
JON BRION
– Composer
Punch-Drunk
Love is the third feature for which Jon Brion has composed the score.
His previous two films – Hard Eight and Magnolia – also
mark collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson. He also worked on Anderson’s
Boogie Nights as both a musician and an actor, appearing in the
film as a band member.
Brion is a
multi-instrumentalist who began his musical career as a member of The
Grays. He has worked extensively with Aimee Mann, Jellyfish, and Fiona
Apple. Brion has also worked with such artists as Murray Attaway, Jude
Cole, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, David Byrne, Brian Stevens, Sam Phillips, E
(and the Eels), Susanna Hoffs, The Mommyheads, and Garrison Starr, among
others.
WILLIAM
ARNOLD – Production Designer
William Arnold
made his debut as a production designer in 1992 on the feature film Mo’
Money. He first worked as an art director in 1988 on Costa-Gavras’
Music Box. Arnold worked again with Music Box production
designer Jeannine Oppewall as art director on Losing Isaiah, The
Bridges of Madison County and Snow Falling on Cedars. He continued
that collaboration on L.A. Confidential and Pleasantville,
garnering Academy Award® nominations for both films in the category of
Best Art Direction. In the last three years, he has served as co-production
designer for Magnolia and as production designer for Slackers
and Confidence.
Arnold includes
among his other film credits With Honors, Men Don’t Leave
and The Color of Money.
JEREMY BLAKE
– Artwork
Jeremy Blake
makes his feature film debut with Punch-Drunk Love.
Blake’s solo
exhibitions date back to 1999, and by 2000 he debuted his Jeremy Blake:
Bungalow 8 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Other solo
exhibitions include Jeremy Blake: Digital Projections at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts (2000), Mod Lang at the Feigen Contemporary
in New York (2001), The Forty Million Dollar Beatnik at Works on
Paper in Los Angeles (2001), and Mod Lang at galleries in Houston,
Paris, and Munich (2002).
Blake has participated
in group exhibitions since 1994, and has been most notably seen in the
Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York
(2000), 010101: Art in Technological Times at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art (2001), and Looking at America at the Yale
University Art Gallery (2002).
Blake has been
the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the New York Foundation
for the Arts Fellowship (1999) and the 79th Annual Directors
Club Award for Broadcast Design & Animation (2000).
MARK BRIDGES
– Costume Designer
Mark Bridges
has worked as a costume designer for more than 10 years, and has served
that role on each of Paul Thomas Anderson’s four features.
He first worked
as a costume designer in 1992 on Anthony Hickox’s Waxworks II: Lost
in Time. Since that time, he has worked on such films as Can’t
Hardly Wait, Blast from the Past, and Ted Demme’s Blow,
for which he received a Costume Designers Guild nomination in 2001.
Bridges success
has also extended to stage and television. Most recently, he acted as
the costume designer on HBO’s Six Feet Under, for which he received
a Costume Designers Guild Award nomination for his work on the series
pilot.
CASSANDRA
KULUKUNDIS – Casting Director
Prior to Punch-Drunk
Love, Cassandra Kulukundis served as casting director on Magnolia
and as a casting assistant on Boogie Nights. Most recently, she
was casting director for the critically acclaimed indie hit Ghost World,
starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi and Brad Renfro.
Kulukundis’ additional feature credits include Deep Blue Sea, The
Mod Squad and Female Perversions.
"ACADEMY
AWARD ®" and "OSCAR ®" are the registered trademarks and
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Click here to read a review of Punch-Drunk
Love
Click here for an interview with Emily
Watson who stars in the film
Click here for an interview with Paul Thomas
Anderson, director of the film
Click here to find out more about After
Eden, the rock band featured in the movie.
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