Director Paul Thomas Anderson on the Dark Optimism of 'Phantom Tread'

Paul Thomas Anderson is probably the greatest filmmaker of his generation. And at 47-years-old, he has a really bad back, partially because of his own universal rule: no sitting. He wants to be close to the actors, so there are no chairs when he works (he has discovered a cure in Pilates). The filmmaker doesn’t love talking about himself, but he is happy to talk about his films, including the upcoming Phantom Thread, which is about an uncompromising man who organizes his life around work. The character is demanding, creative and often cruel. Anderson, a California boy born and raised, says that he has heard people make comparisons to his life as a film director. But he says he likes to think that “you can live a generous life to your family and your friends and still be self-consumed with your work. That they’re not mutually exclusive.” The movie was shot in London and the main character, Reynolds Woodcock, is played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The plot was closely guarded before its release, but GQ says it falls somewhere between a love story and a horror film. Anderson himself claims to be an optimist, and he finds some sort of joy or hopefulness in the “incomplete, inchoate condition of his characters.”