1 of 8 | Leonardo DiCaprio, seen at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., stars in “One Battle After Another.” File Photo by Chris Chew/UPI | License Photo
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson cites Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland as an inspiration for the film One Battle After Another, in theaters Friday, while star Leonardo DiCaprio drew on The Big Lebowski and Dog Day Afternoon.
DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, the assumed identity of a political activist living for years in hiding. Now father to a 16-year-old daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), Bob is unprepared when the government comes looking for them.
At a Los Angeles press conference with the cast and Anderson, DiCaprio discussed two very disparate references for Bob.
“Obviously, The Dude was an influence on this character in a modern-day context,” DiCaprio said. “And I was also talking about Dog Day Afternoon with Pacino, that fanaticism that he has to get back and connect and save the person that he loves.”
Like Jeff Bridges’ character in Big Lebowski, Bob spends much of the movie in his robe as he must suddenly flee. Where The Dude botched a ransom negotiation, Bob has forgotten the code words established 16 years earlier for his exact crisis.
“I love the idea that you also expect that this character’s going to use massive espionage skills, but he cannot remember the password,” DiCaprio said. “It’s just a brilliant setup for what is ultimately a very flawed hero dynamic.”
What Bob lacks in ability, he makes up for in dedication. DiCaprio said his devotion to Willa makes Bob a true hero.
“His real heroism is the idea that he just keeps relentlessly moving forward to protect his daughter,” he said. “It’s only now I really grasp sort of the power in that, of being there for his daughter.”
One Battle was Infiniti’s first movie, after starring in the Apple TV+ adaptation of Presumed Innocent. She found herself in the deep end with DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn and Regina Hall, much like Willa does when she has to go on the run.
“What I wanted to do was hone in on her feeling of not fully knowing a bit of her story,” Infiniti said.
The chase scenes, including an epic vehicular pursuit at the climax, were as emotional as they were physical, Infiniti said.
“Tracking emotionally where Willa starts that, and then ends up, was very fun to find,” she said. “It was a fine line that I feel like I had to tread.”
Anderson only discovered the setting — a stretch of road over hills in Borrego Springs, Calif. — after years of location scouting.
“You could feel collectively in the car that we were all excited by this stretch of road, and that maybe [it was] like a gift from the movie gods,” Anderson said. “It created the most important thing for the story, which was an opportunity for Willa to take advantage, and take control of her story, and take the high ground.”
Furthermore, filming those locations in VistaVision with a larger 35mm negative creates what Anderson calls “3D without the glasses.”
Del Toro played a role in the film’s action too as Willa’s sensei, Sergio. Sergio helps Bob get away from his house under siege and evade the military pursuers.
The scenes of Bob scrambling to escape and locate Willa are chaotic. However, the action follows Sergio leading Bob through it.
“I was the anchor in some ways, even though the scenes were packed with movement,” del Toro said. “We’re going through my house and everything is moving.”
Sergio is a fan of Bob’s group, the French 75, del Toro said, and expresses as much during their journey. Sergio also allowed del Toro to explore some new sides of previous roles he played.
“I played Che Guevara,” del Toro said. “There’s a little bit of that. Maybe I’ve been in a couple movies where I’ve driven a car pretty fast, but this time I had Leo hanging on the window.”
Hall stars as Deandra, a woman from Bob’s past who returns to escort Willa to safety. Hall said she saw Deandra’s role as reigning in some of the film’s more outrageous characters.
“She kind of tries to keep the French 75 grounded in the beginning,” Hall said. “I think that’s how she services the ultimate goal of the movie, which is to save Willa.”
Hall also credited Infiniti with grounding Willa amid all the outrageous forces pursuing her.
“She maintained such an innocence, and that was so important for Willa because you want to protect that, right?” Hall said. “You need the girl that everyone wants to save.”
Penn plays Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, the man leading the pursuit of Willa. Lockjaw had a relationship with Willa’s mother so he takes it personally.
“I saw it only as a lamentation on security and law enforcement when we were making it,” Penn deadpanned.
Lockjaw’s extreme devotion to the rule of law is a source of much of the film’s humor. Penn did admit to being amused by the material.
“When I read the script the first time, I started giggling at about page three,” Penn said. “I didn’t go very many pages where that didn’t happen.”
Penn likened portraying Lockjaw to being a musician conducted by Anderson.
“He’s finding the tone and the approach, and so you find which instruments he wants around and pay attention,” Penn said. “It’s like there was a music I could hear in the script when I read it and I danced to it and he monitored the energy ups and downs of it.”
Music drives Anderson too, the director said. Anderson played music as he screened footage from previous days’ filming, and gave Di Caprio a key track for Bob.
“Hearing Steely Dan’s ‘Dirty Work’ on the way to work one morning and coming in and playing it for him, I say, ‘I think, at the last minute here, I found your theme song,'” Anderson said.
DiCaprio used “Dirty Work” to get into character.
“I think I played that song 50 times,” DiCaprio said.
Teyana Taylor plays Willa’s mother, Perfidia, whose arrest 16 years ago sends Bob and Willa into hiding. Shown freeing immigrants from a detention camp, setting bombs in politicians’ offices and robbing banks to finance such operations, Taylor understood the character intuitively.
“We see a woman in survival mode and we see a woman literally show up for herself, which is a rare thing because we’re forced to be strong,” Taylor said. “So to see a woman say, ‘I’m standing up, no matter the cost of it’ meant a lot.”
That Perfidia turns to revolutionary acts after giving birth to newborn Willa was also important to Taylor.
“Paul was shedding light on postpartum depression, which is a very, very real thing that is not often spoken about,” Taylor said. “So I was really excited to dive into that and to shed light into that as a mother, too.”
