The Incredible Instinctive Acting Showcased in the 2012 Paul Thomas Anderson Movie ‘The Master’

The Back Focus took a deep dive into the sublime 2012 Paul Thomas Anderson movie The Master, noting how the two main actors, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, took their roles quite seriously. Each actor immersed themselves in research, physicality, and improvisational techniques to make their characters as believable as they could, with Anderson giving them room to interpret the scene as they saw fit.

There are plenty reasons why “The Master” continues to endure. …what helped really elevate it to another level was Anderson’s openness to his actors and how both Phoenix and Hoffman didn’t necessarily arrive with answers. They arrived willing to search. And in that space of improvisation and instinct and discovery, they created this relationship that just feels it’s just raw and specific. Like you can’t write something like this. It feels too like human.