Alana Haim surprised everyone with her film debut. Even herself.

Anderson said that he knew that Haim would be good, but “I did not know that she what good. I’ve worked with the same guys for about 20 years and just looked at them to check. Like, you should pat me on the shoulder to make sure I see what I see. Don’t let me be fooled. And all together on the set saw what I saw – her skills and how you can photograph her. “

It helped that her co-star, the charismatic Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, who often collaborated with Anderson), had never done a movie before either. Anderson chose him at the end of the trial, after auditioning for several young actors who felt too well-mannered and formally trained to fit Haim’s naturalistic style. Hoffman and Haim had briefly met through Anderson five years earlier, never thought they would cross paths again, but as soon as they read together, Haim recalled, “It was like we were one team. We can conquer the world together. “

Despite the characters’ relatively chaste relationship, the age difference between them has sparked some controversy. In real life, Haim, who turns 30 this month, is 12 years older than Hoffman (they became so close during filming that she still calls him “one of my best friends”), although her age is a bit ambiguous in the film. … At one point, the character says she is 25, but there is a pause between the two numbers, which suggests that she may be rounding up. “There was never any talk between Paul and me about how old Alana was,” she said. “She’s in her early 20s. I say several ages in the film, but you really don’t believe Alana. She doesn’t even know how old she really is? She is very secretive. But really, it’s more about the friendship between her and Gary. ”

As we spoke late November afternoon, Haim was battling a sinus infection she blamed on the winds of Santa Ana. When the Southern California breeze tickled the curtains of her living room window, she sometimes paused our conversation to blow her nose with humorous theatricality. (“Oh, it was many!She was dressed in a white T-shirt, jeans and around her neck her most valuable piece of jewelry – the “Sister of the Moon” pendant, given to her by one of her idols, Stevie Nicks. In conversation, Chaim is chatty and ebullient, cutting off the ends of his sentences from time to time in an agitated rush to move on to the next thought.

During filming, Anderson discovered that the actor Haim reminded him most of Joaquin Phoenix, whom Anderson had starred in The Master (2012) and Inner Vice (2014).

“She can throw herself at something, much like Joaquin,” Anderson said. “You cannot tell if they are completely out of control, or if they are so in their body that they can give the impression that they are out of control. They are very similar. This is weird. They’re both wild, you know? You are not entirely sure what will happen next. “