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In recent memory, there is perhaps no character study more engaging than Paul Thomas Anderson’s
There Will Be Blood— a story following the obsessive ambition of oilman Daniel Plainview
at the turn of the century.
But how did Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis breathe life into one of the most
well-developed characters in cinema history?
Today, we’ll take a look at how Anderson and Day Lewis came to work together, how the
character was written by Anderson versus how he was developed by Day Lewis, how Day Lewis
came up with Plainview’s iconic voice, how the costumes were chosen and much much more.
This is making film…
Paul Thomas Anderson had written the role of Daniel Plainview for Daniel Day Lewis despite
never having met him.
Anderson was hesitant at the prospect of contacting an actor he really admired,
but had no connection to.
That was until a mutual friend told Anderson about Day Lewis’ fondness for Anderson’s
2002 film Punch Drunk Love, which gave Anderson the [quote]
“boost of confidence” he needed (Modell).
Anderson said that he still would have risked the failure of attempting to get Day Lewis
on board, but knowing that he liked Punch Drunk Love so much supplied the encouragement
to think that maybe he would like this new project (Modell).
Anderson met up with Day Lewis in New York where they spent a couple of months getting
to know each other.
Anderson says that he remembers eating a lot of breakfast and a lot of walking around (Modell).
Once they both decided to make the movie, they split up to prepare— Anderson went
back to California to finish the script and Day Lewis went back to Ireland to begin developing
his character (Modell).
There was light infrequent contact, but no more substantial than Day Lewis calling to
ask a simple question about the story.
Anderson said, “As far as I’m concerned, I didn’t need to give him anything more
than he wanted to know” (Modell).
Anderson based his writing of the character of Daniel Plainview on three components.
Anderson thought of the story as being something out of the horror genre and, believe it or
not, the first component he used while writing the character of Daniel Plainview
was Count Dracula.
Several sources have dissected this comparison noting that we are first introduced to Plainview
shrouded in the darkness of the mine shaft protected from the sunlight and that he thirsts
for oil like a vampire thirsts for blood (brightlightsfilm).
The title, There Will Be Blood, alludes to oil being the blood of the land.
Plainview’s arch nemesis sees himself as a “Man of God” and, at the end of the
film, we leave Plainview secluded in his castle-like home (brightlightsfilm).
“Everyday, I drink the blood of lamb from Bandi’s tract.”
Admittedly, this is a bit of a reach, but Anderson has confirmed modeling Plainview
partially on Dracula and said, “I just had it in my head, underneath it all, that we
were making a horror film…
Maybe we go to horror movies because we want to see something horrible happen, in the same
way we might get excited to look at a car crash.
In some ways, Plainview’s story is a bit like a car crash,
one that just keeps getting worse” (Blood for Oil).
The second component was the character J. Arnold Ross from Upton Sinclair’s book Oil!,
on which the movie was loosely based.
The book involves Ross and his son Bunny coming across oil while quail hunting on a goat ranch.
Ross eventually comes into conflict with the evangelist Eli, but that’s pretty much the
extent of the similarities.
The book mostly revolves around Bunny, the HW character.
Anderson had said that he only used the first 150 pages from the book (Wiki).
As far as inspiration from the book, it seems to be mostly Plainview’s way of speaking
about his business.
In an interview, Anderson spoke about a particular line from Sinclair’s book.
It reads:
“I have business connections, so I can get the lumber for the derrick.
Such things go by friendship in a rush like this."
Anderson said, “anybody who can say that is pretty cool, you know?…
those sort of things helped creating whoever the hell it is” (Schwartz).
The third, and perhaps most important component, was the "real-life oil tycoon" Edward Doheny.
The small amount of Plainview’s backstory that does make it in the film
was based primarily on Doheny.
Like Plainview, Doheny was from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, worked for a Geological Survey,
and mined silver in New Mexico (PONSOLDT).
Perhaps the most famous line in the film…
“I drink your milkshake.”
was also possibly based on something involving Doheny.
Anderson says that the line comes from a 1924 court hearing after Doheny was acquitted of
bribery charges following the Teapot Dome Scandal in which [quote] “Secretary of the
Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming
and two other locations in California to private oil companies at low rates
without competitive bidding” (Wiki).
Fall reportedly said, "Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw
reaches across the room, I’ll end up drinking your milkshake” (Shortlist).
Fall was found guilty of bribery and sentenced to one year in jail (Shortlist).
However, in 2013, an independent group failed to find
the milkshake quote in Fall’s testimony (Shortlist).
An article says that the quote possibly originated from a 2003 “debate over drilling in Alaska,”
in which it was said [quote] "The oil is underground, and it is going to be drilled and come up...
Here is a giant reservoir underground...
Just like a curved straw, you put it underground and maneouver it, and the 'milkshake' is way
over there, and your little child wants the milkshake, and they sit over here in their
bedroom where they are feeling ill, and they just gobble it up from way down in the kitchen,
where you don't even have to move the Mix Master that made the ice cream for them” (shortlist).
What’s funny is that the oil they used in the film was made using the same “stuff
they put in chocolate milkshakes at McDonalds" (Entertainment Weekly).
It has been said that Sinclair’s book is also loosely based on the life of Doheny and
his company Pan American Petroleum & Transport Company.
As for Daniel Day Lewis’ preparations, he said that there was no particular model that
he based his portrayal of Daniel Plainview on (Indie London).
Day Lewis read Sinclair’s book and said that it introduced him to the fascinating
world of the oilfields and the lives of drillers and prospectors, but other than the detail
and context of the setting, he didn’t find any clues as to Daniel Plainview’s character
in there (Indie London).
Instead, he gained some insight into the mind of a prospector by reading actual letters
sent by oil men and silver miners to their families (Time Out).
Day Lewis said, "I studied the life of… Edward Doheny only insofar as I learnt about
the main events of his life.
Los Angeles was actually founded on muck, it’s an amazing thing, if you see the early
photographs dating back to that period.
It’s actually a forest of oil derricks with tiny little houses sandwiched here and there
in between them…
That was the world, and Los Angeles grew out of that and was founded on that wealth.
Doheny was one of the principal characters in the building of that city” (Indie London).
Another interesting thing to note is that Plainview’s mansion at the end was actually
filmed in Doheny’s mansion.
Daniel Day Lewis: “Yeah, I’m not sure if the fever is for acting or the fever
really just for…
I suppose that’s what it comes down to.”
Charlie Rose: “But what else would it be?”
Daniel Day Lewis: “The idea of exploring the world through a different-
with an entirely different experience to your own.”
Day Lewis is often asked about his process of getting into the minds of his characters.
Day Lewis said, "The reason I try to resist talking about it much is because I can never
find a way of describing it that seems to make any sense…
On the one hand, it seems to be mystifying the whole thing, which wouldn’t be my wish,
yet from my point of view I need to feel that there’s a mystery there” (Time Out).
It sounds vague, but beyond the normal things like familiarizing himself with the tools
of the era he spent many months in what he calls “listless rumination” (Charlie Rose).
Day Lewis and Anderson discussed Plainview’s backstory a bit, saying that, before he can
convince the audience that Plainview is a real person, he has to convince himself (Reel Pieces).
Daniel Day Lewis already had quite a reputation for losing himself in the characters he plays
going as far as catching pneumonia because he refused to wear a modern coat in between
shots during Gangs of New York (thrillist).
He won his first best actor academy award for his role in the 1989 film My Left Foot,
which follows a man born with cerebral palsy who can only control his left foot.
During the production of My Left Foot, Day-Lewis [quote] "insisted on visiting restaurants
in a wheelchair and had to be lifted across the lighting cables
each day to reach the set” (nytimes).
On deciding to take on the role of Daniel Plainview, Day-Lewis said, "I daresay, because
the unconscious plays such an important part in the work, the imagination being on the
front line of that ... what could be more liberating than to explore with impunity the
darker recesses of one's imagination and psyche?…
I suppose that has always appealed to me, and I always am most often intrigued by lives
that seem very far removed from my own.
[With] Plainview, [it] wasn't the violence of the man or the misanthrope of the man that
attracted me particularly, but just that unknown life in its entirety” (MetalFloss).
Day Lewis thought Anderson’s written version of Plainview was [quote] “an honest examination
of a life” (Charlie Rose).
But as much as he enjoyed the script, he had to consider whether or not he could be the
one to bring Plainview to life.
Daniel Day-Lewis: “The question mark is- it’s kind of a false question because it’s
already asked too late, in a way.”
Charlie Rose: “When you ask it, you’re already there.”
Daniel Day-Lewis: “I’m gone.
Yeah, I’ve packed my bag.”
Day Lewis spoke more on this with Indie London saying, "Really, the challenge always seems
to be the same thing, to tell a story as well as you can.
To whatever extent I’m able to assess my contribution at the very beginning, having
felt the pull of the orbit of another world, I try to step backwards and ask myself if
I can serve that story as the person I’m going to be telling that story with.
I try to do that, but I think I’m usually already too far-gone anyhow.
It’s a token gesture rather than a real one" (Indie London).
The first step toward breathing life into the character was to find his voice.
What does Daniel Plainview sound like and how does he speak?
One of the most interesting aspects about Plainview is how his voice and speech relate
to his core ambition.
Plainview was comfortable mining for silver… more or less.
To get beyond the small time success of silver mining and up to the massive wealth that oil
has to offer requires not only managing a team of workers, but rubbing elbows with the
folks who own and inhabit the land you want to drill into.
Oilmen had to be showmen,
they have to be charming, authoritative, and charismatic (Blood for Oil).
In order to get what he wants, Plainview has to somehow convince the people he hates to
believe that he likes them.
“There are times when I look at people and see nothing worth liking.”
“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of you and I hope very much in the months
to come, I’ll be able to visit with each and every one of you.”
Really, he just wants to suck the [quote/unquote] “blood" from the ground and move on.
“Just give me the blood, Eli, and let me get out of here.
Give me the blood, lord, and let me get away!”
As Day Lewis said— after living in a hole for years, he’s got to find a voice and
a silver tongue to manipulate people (Charlie Rose).
People often cite Plainview’s voice when speaking about Day Lewis’ great performance.
It’s easy to understand why this might be the case considering how different Plainview’s
voice is from his own.
“If we decide to drill for oil and if the well begins to produce, I’ll give your church
a five thousand dollar signing.”
“It seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad beautiful head
of Paul Thomas Anderson.”
Day Lewis had said that he felt lucky that there are no recordings from that period that
could allow people to poke holes in his performance saying things like
“people didn’t talk like that during that time!” (Charlie Rose).
That said, Paul Thomas Anderson did give him some recordings of people from the dustbowl years
including some from Plainview’s hometown of Fondelac, although he didn’t get much
help from that (Charlie Rose).
Some have said that Day Lewis based the voice on director and actor John Huston.
“The bond issue passes Tuesday,
there’ll be eight million dollars to build an aqueduct and reservoir—
I’m doing it.”
While he did listen to some tapes of Huston,
he didn’t base the voice on him (Mental Floss).
However, he did say that the “vigor of Huston’s language” appealed to him, so perhaps it
was more about the speech pattern than the voice itself (Mental Floss).
Huston’s 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre provided provided Paul Thomas Anderson
with much inspiration during the making of There Will Be Blood, but that’s a story
for another episode.
Daniel Day-Lewis: “I might be listening to tapes, listening to different voices, allowing
things to just run through me.
Something might stay; something might not.”
Day Lewis claims that he did not base the voice on anyone in particular (Indie London).
He says that it is too hard to recreate something [or] the idea of something (Schwartz).
When taking on a role, he tries to first hear the sound of his character’s voice before
he tries to speak it (Charlie Rose).
He said, "I didn’t know what I was looking for, and as far as possible I try not to dismember
the life of a man into separate parts, physical or spiritual or vocal.
I try to allow that life to reveal itself in some way as if I don’t really have much
to do with it.
I’m nearly always working on a voice of some kind, but I try not to do it in isolation
from the other work.
I talk to myself a lot, I have a little prehistoric machine with tiny tapes that are incompatible
with just about any system I know of.
I talk into that an awful lot to see if I can find a sound that means something.
But nearly always it comes with hearing a voice in my mind’s ear" (Indie London).
We can see now how much just Plainview’s voice has become a part of pop culture.
“I’m Daniel Plainview.
This is my partner and son HW.
I’m an oilman, but I also love milkshakes.”
Paul Thomas Anderson recalls his surprise at the first time he heard Daniel Plainview’s
voice saying, "The voice came in these little Dictaphone recordings that Daniel would send
me from time to time.
It was funny, because my first impression of them was 'This is insane!'...
But those are usually the best things, the things that you have no preconceived idea
about that rattle your world.
When you're writing it, and you're alone in your room, it's great.
It's just you.
But the great thing is opening it up to someone else.
You have to be selfless and allow this thing to happen.
So I would get these Dictaphone recordings, which were alternately exciting and nerve-wracking.
But after sitting with them, just for a day, I could see where he was heading.
Somewhere along the way, he just kept finding it, and finding it, and finding it, until
it settled into what it became” (Modell).
Anderson mentions feeling the same way about Phillip Seymore Hoffman when he first saw
what he was going to do in Boogie Nights (Modell).
“Cause I wanted to, you know, I wanted to make sure you thought it was cool or else
I was going to take it back.”
And it was similar with some of the musical pieces Jonny Greenwood sent him early on while
making There Will Be Blood (Modell).
After the initial shock of a different take on what you had in mind wears off, you can
see what they were thinking.
After all, you are collaborating with these artists for a reason.
Daniel Day Lewis is already sort of in character by the time they start picking out the wardrobe.
He heavily involves himself in this process because he thinks that, since the clothes
are part of the character’s expression, the clothes should be chosen from the point
of view of the character (Charlie Rose).
Where did Plainview buy his clothes and why did he make those choices?
How does he wish to present himself?
So, in a way the clothes become part of the backstory.
Day Lewis said, "if you have begun to understand the world—or at least to believe that you
understand that world that you’re creating through the eyes of this other life—then
you begin to look at clothes in a different way.
You try and imagine the vanity; you try and feel the vanity of that particular man.…
you sort of imagine the man who commands the attention of millions and has a checkbook
the size of the telephone directory at his disposal, and you imagine him standing in
front of a mirror deciding between this pair of underpants or that pair of underpants,
and the hat, and the coat” (Schwartz).
Daniel Day Lewis: “When you see Plainview as he’s dressed later on,
you know, he’s the boss.
You need to feel that he is a man who could do the job that any one of his men are doing
equally as well and probably better than them.”
Mark Bridges designed the costumes for the film.
You might remember Bridges as the costume designer for Phantom Thread
who won the Academy Award…
and the jet ski.
Bridges finds inspiration in vintage magazine articles, artwork from the period, movies,
and his own memory (Academy Originals).
He also likes to use actual vintage clothing if he can.
He finds a magic in coming across the perfect hat that already exists.
Bridges says, "Leading up to the first time we see that hat, his hats kind of echo or
inform what’s going on with his career and life.
He starts with a miner hat that is unshaped and unformed.
By 1911, he had this hat.
Daniel Day-Lewis felt the hats were very important to his character.
There were three choices that were all good, and he took them and lived with them for days.
He sort of creates mini-worlds, and so he took them, just took them for a spin, so to
speak, and settled on that one as what he felt most comfortable with and most represented
in his mind the character he was creating.
And it took on a kind of magic where he would be Daniel Day-Lewis, but you knew he was Daniel
Plainview once the hat went on.
So that was very rewarding to me” (Denver Post).
Here we can see some wardrobe test photos showing the hats that didn’t work and the
one that did.
Plainview’s iconic hat was an actual vintage hat that Bridges found in one of the local
costume rental shops (Denver Post).
Everything about it was perfect from the size to the color and quality (Denver Post).
They tried to make a double, but it wasn’t quite right, so the hat you see is the only
one that exists (Academy Originals).
Also, the sweat stains were real.
By the time they got to filming, Anderson and Day Lewis were so much on the same page
that the discussions while shooting revolved mainly around whether or not Plainview should
be wearing a hat or smoking a pipe.
Anderson says that it’s the “small stuff that says everything” (PONSOLDT).
According to cinematographer Robert Elswit, the decision to wear the hat in a scene could
easily cause problems for the camera (Blood for Oil).
On shooting interior scenes, Elswit said, “[I] sought to 'build the light level up
enough so I could shoot with our 200-ASA stock and not underexpose, working at a T-stop of
around 3.2.
Things got tricky whenever Daniel was wearing his hat, because I had to somehow light his
face under the brim without making it feel completely artificial.
I tried to place the light far enough away from him and soften it with diffusion so it
would feel like ambient room light.
Usually, there was enough ambient light from the small sources in the scenes, like sconces
and table lamps, that I could create a soft, directional light that didn’t feel flat.
Sometimes I’d use a 2K aimed through muslin and whatever gel we picked.
In some of the bigger sets, I just tried to hide a bunch of smaller units” (Blood for Oil).
The important thing here with the research, voice, and costume, is these are just parts
of Plainview and to get an idea of the whole, it can’t really just be the sum of its parts—
it has to be a single thing.
To Daniel Day Lewis, it’s not like you add a voice, a hat, and prospecting skills and
you get Daniel Plainview.
When asked how his research factors into his performance, he said, "Of course, there are
... things that need to be understood in connection with the period that we’re working with,
the society of that period, that particular group working within the society, the skills
you might need to learn—although, in fact, digging a hole in the ground, I mean
pretty much anyone can do that!...
You choose to borrow another person’s life, and like a child, that’s what you do, and
as far as possible, it needs to gradually appear to you in its entirety, rather than
in its separate bits and pieces" (Schwartz).
Want more videos on There Will Be Blood?
“Yes I do.”
Let me know in the comments down below.
Stay tuned for part two where we will discuss Daniel Day Lewis’ method acting,
how Paul Thomas Anderson directs his actors,
how Plainview relates to other characters, and more.
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