The 30-year-old singer, acclaimed for her acting debut as a teenager’s crush in “Licorice Pizza,” discusses with sisters Este and Danielle playing together in the Grammy-nominated band HAIM, and their history with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.
In her first-ever acting role, Alana Haim is getting a lot of attention. The Hollywood Reporter called her performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” “one of the most exciting screen debuts in recent memory.” Correspondent Anthony Mason said, “You got incredible reviews.” “Oh, thank you!” Alana Haim laughed. “It’s crazy. I don’t really know how to take it.” In Anderson’s ode to L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, set in 1973, she plays 25-year-old Alana Kane. Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) plays her teenaged suitor: Alana (Alana Haim): “Where are your parents?” Gary (Cooper Hoffman): “My mom works for me.” Alana: “Oh, of course she does!” Gary: “Yes, she does, in my public relations company.” Alana: “In your ‘public relations company’? Because you have that?” Gary: “Yes.” Alana: “And you’re an actor?” Gary: “Yes!” Alana: “And you’re a secret agent, too?” Gary: “…?’ The director wrote the part for the 30-year-old Haim. But it was not their first collaboration: “I’m lucky enough to have done so many music videos with Paul that we had such incredible trust,” she said. With her older sisters, Danielle and Este, Alana is in the Grammy-nominated band, HAIM. Anderson has directed eight of their videos, including this, for their song, “Summer Girl”: Anderson also cast Alana’s sisters, and their parents, as her family in the film. One scene, when Alana brings her atheist boyfriend to shabbat dinner, came from real life. Alana said, “I remember telling Paul that story. And then, it was in the script!” “You knew how to play that scene,” Mason said. “Oh yeah, I knew how to play that scene. And my dad knew how to play that scene, especially!” Alana: “Why would you do that! Why would you do that! I feel like maybe he was gonna be my boyfriend.” Father: “Listen, young lady, you don’t bring this idiot to shabbat dinner here.” Alana: “Listen, Dad, he’s an atheist, and an actor. And he’s famous.” Father: “But he’s Jewish.
