For me like, I'll never forget when I had to dance in a bikini, and be drunk and
Paul was just crying of laughter, I was doing because he was like "How do you not like,
your vanity is gone." He was like "You have no vanity."
How are you? I'm good, how are you?
I'm good, I'm Jade.
Hi, Alana.
And I have my tea. I'm like okay good, good. I hope that you have tea. Naturally, of course.
What tea are you drinking?
Chamomile. I don't know if that's like a good tea to drink.
Maybe I should be drinking english breakfast right now, but like it's my like comfort tea.
I mean any tea is good tea. I am drinking english breakfast but you know I have to represent.
I already, this is already, what am I doing.
I'll just introduce myself like, I'm a writer director.
I recently graduated from Columbia's MFA program in screenwriting/directing and I'm a BAFTA Newcomer.
So that's why I get the privilege of talking with you. Yeah. Something that really stood out
to me though in this particular film was your your on-screen presence with, Gary Valentine, played
by Cooper Hoffman. Is there like a moment in, a particular moment, where you felt that chemistry
develop with Cooper, because it is just so Magnetic to watch. - Oh my god, I mean there's many
moments. I was so lucky to have Cooper Hoffman be my Gary Valentine. It took, it took a very long
time to find Gary. I mean I was the first person that was that signed on to do Licorice Pizza.
Me and Paul were like "Well, who's gonna play Gary?" I was very much like I need to find because
I knew the relationship that was, that had to be between Alana and Gary. They really needed to be
two peas in a pod. When I read with Cooper for the first time, we were actually in New York.
Me and Paul had flown to New York and didn't tell, obviously didn't tell Cooper like
this is your audition because I think that he would have probably gotten super nervous.
We sat in this hotel room and we just read the script all the way through for
Paul, from start to finish, and even though we were really terrible. I mean in my mind
we were incredible, but Paul, when Paul tells the story he's like you guys were horrible.
We read through the script, and I, and we both kind of had this feeling of like oh we're a team. I mean
it felt so nice to have another person that also hadn't acted before and and we were really just
like falling into this whole thing together. It was, I mean, it was the best. - It's incredible.
I guess like yeah working with, or being able to work with someone who is also it's the first time
that there is this immediate bond. Did you find like how did you find that to develop during
the creative process of actually working and doing the movie? - Obviously we were super nervous but I
think the first moment that we kind of felt like, we looked at each other, and we were like maybe we
could pull this off was the fight where Gary and Alana are you know fighting over the fact that
Gary wants to open a pinball palace. She's trying to show him that you know there's bigger
things in this world and now I'm a politician and I have to get my life together. That was
the first scene that basically me and Cooper shot just us. It was super intense because
we really hadn't even gotten the characters yet and we were fighting and falling apart.
After shooting that scene we were like "Oh my god, like I think, I think we're gonna be okay."
I read that you, or that Paul, didn't want you to take acting classes? -Yeah
So you just kind of were like "Right going in and winging it." - Well that was, I mean that
was my first question to him was i was like "Should I like take an acting class?" and he was
very adamant like "No, no like trust me don't touch anything like, don't do anything."
I had so many doubts in myself and Paul never had doubts in me. Which was crazy for him to
see because I had never, it's not like I had been doing monologues in front of Paul secretly for
years. I was just me around him and that's what he wanted. - It translates
so beautifully. I know that he directed a few of Haim's music videos and so you had a pre-existing
relationship. Do you feel like that helped you feel more comfortable on set? - Yeah I mean with Haim
music videos it's funny. We have zero budget, no time, and like no warning for Paul. With
Licorice Pizza I mean we had 65 days. So me and Paul really hadn't spent that much time together and also like
haven't focused. I mean Haim music videos are kind of all over the place and this was like a
very focused film. Being able to step onto set and and consider your director basically your family
and also knowing that everyone on set had also worked on Haim music videos, which was also a big
like eye opener for me. I was like how did we get you guys who are like
movie magic people to do high-end videos. Like how do we do that. - How did you do all that running?
I don't know. Honestly, I have no idea and it was funny because when we were shooting it we ran so
much I mean that's just the running that you see is like maybe a tenth of what we
actually shot. It really did help, I mean it was such a big deal. I mean even in the way that I
walked and the way that I ran like everything was thought out in my mind because Alana Cain is not
me she's a different person. Just being in the costumes and wearing, I mean I was wearing
I was running that hard wearing period shoes. So my shoes were - Really impressive - sprinting and but it
helped so much. I mean that is such a huge part of Gary and Alana's life and also just being from the
Valley you are constantly running trying to figure out what's next. - Obviously, Paul wrote this script
like with you in mind sent you the script, in a word document, which is baffling to me yeah but
and it's you know set in the Valley, which is where you're from.
Your sisters are in the movie, as well your parents play your parents in in the movie. - It was the
most mind-blowing thing and we sat down to a dinner table which we hadn't done in like five months.
It was so funny. I mean my dad is hilarious, they had no scripts. That whole scene wasn't
scripted it was just us the family doing this scene together. It was it was great. - Did you
find um working with Paul that music was part of that creative process and discussions. Do you
feel like the main - I mean the best example is uh when we were shooting the first scene of the movie.
Paul had known that he wanted to use this song called The July Tree by Nina Simone.
He wanted me to walk to the beach but he played it for me right before we started the scene
and I kind of kept it in my brain and it really did set the tone for for the whole scene that we
we had shot. That was like really when like my musicianship kind of came out because I didn't
need, I can walk. It's no secret that me and my siblings can walk really well. We walk in all of
our music videos so Paul knew that I could walk to the beat. It's also no secret that Paul
has incredible music tastes and all of his movies, even the ones that are just score, I mean
they're just impeccable, it's outrageous. It's honestly annoying. I'm like can you just be that
please. I haven't found one thing that Paul is bad at. One thing. He's incredible, he's a superhuman.
I would be absolutely terrified as a first-time actress. Obviously this
you're in an incredible band and you have experience as being a musician and performer.
Do you feel like dealing with being on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people
kind of helped you deal with that pressure and stress? - It is this weird unexplainable
wave of calm. You kind of feel like outside of yourself when you, at least for me, I felt very
outside of myself when I was acting because you're not yourself anymore and you're playing this
character. You have to do what's best for her. So for me like, I'll never forget when I had to dance
in a bikini and be drunk. Paul was just crying of laughter. I was doing, because he was like
"How do you not, like your vanity is gone." He was like "You have no vanity" - That scene while
you're in the bikini and I was even like what this is incredible like zero zero f's given.
I also love that I didn't notice until I saw the movie but I had a huge bruise on my bum. A huge bruise.
That I have no idea where it came from. No idea. When I of course I had to wear a bikini.
It was just like right there front and center and I was like "How did I get?"
I was watching I was like "Was that a bruise? Like what is that?"
I'm curious was there something
about the process of acting that you thought would be scary but wasn't? Or that you thought
wouldn't be scary but was? - I was terrified through the whole thing but it really is like what I had
the support of Paul. I mean Paul is such an incredible director and I'm such a fan of all
of his films. I mean there is not one PTA film that is not just incredible. When Paul says like you
can do this I mean there was like a million times where I would look at him and be like
"I don't think I can do this."
And he was like "You can do this." I mean there's a joke that I, that was on set that I constantly know that
I was going to get fired because you know you hear stories of actors you know. Once the
two-week mark was up I was like "Okay, I think I'm okay." But you hear about stories that are
like two weeks in we had to reshoot the whole movie because you know the actor wasn't giving
up the goods. So I was constantly just like "Oh I can't wait til Paul figures out that I can't do
this," because then we're just gonna, we'll have the talk. De'll be like "We're replacing you."
I would have been like "I get it, like I get it. Replace me." But that never happened thankfully.
He really did, I mean without him without his support, I probably wouldn't be wouldn't have
been able to to give the performance that I did - Do you think that you would want to write or direct
like what's next? - I mean I would love to act again. I mean I would love to just try something new.
I loved it so much. I loved playing someone that wasn't myself. I loved acting which
which is so crazy because again like you like go through 30 years of your life thinking you're
one thing and then you're like oh no you can do more like that's pretty crazy. But directing
and producing, who knows? I mean I never say no in this life. If I said no then I wouldn't be here.
I'm very happy that I'm here and I'm very happy that I got to do this movie. So I mean never say never.
One question since obviously this is for the BAFTA community, you know we're like a bunch of
actors, writers, directors. Is there any piece of advice that you would give to up and coming talent?
Oh my goodness. I mean I can only go through, since I don't have much acting experience.
But maybe this would, maybe this would you know ring true to an actor. I mean
when it came to me performing with my band Haim, we really did follow our gut and and stuck to our
guns. That was that was a big thing for me and my siblings was that, if we were gonna fail
it was gonna be our way. If you do something that you truly love and truly believe in
then even if it doesn't work out it you did it for yourself and you'll feel good
about it because you did it your way. That's what we've always done from the beginning.
I mean and it's very hard to stick to your guns because there's a lot of voices around you telling
you things that you think that you should do and it's very nerve-wracking. If you stick to
your guns I feel like you'll succeed regardless of anything because you did it for yourself.
Alana, thank you so much for making the time to chat with us and have to tea.
It's been such an honor and pleasure chatting with you and meeting you. Congratulations on
on all your nominations and success. -Thank you so much thank you and I can't wait to celebrate. We're
gonna celebrate, we gotta celebrate it. - Exactly. - Nice to meet you! - Alright, lovely to meet you Alana.
Thank you, bye!