The 10 Best Performances In Licorice Pizza

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest directorial effort, Licorice Pizza, has been lauded by critics for many aspects – the ‘70s production design, the soundtrack full of needle-drops, the episodic plotting emulating the loose flow of life – but one of the main points of praise is the performances by the cast. Almost every actor who appears in the movie gives a memorable turn.

From inexperienced leads Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman to cameoing A-listers Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper, a bunch of actors give unforgettable performances in Licorice Pizza.

10 Skyler Gisondo As Lance

Notable for his appearances in the Vacation reboot and the underrated Netflix dark comedy series Santa Clarita Diet, Skyler Gisondo plays a minor but memorable role in Licorice Pizza as a fellow child actor who appears alongside Gary in a stage show.

He ends up taking Alana on a couple of dates, much to Gary’s chagrin, but blows his chances when he tells her devout family that he’s an atheist. Gisondo smarms it up to play Lance as an arrogant, self-obsessed performer.

9 Mary Elizabeth Ellis As Momma Anita

Mary Elizabeth Ellis, best known as “The Waitress” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, plays a small part in Licorice Pizza as Anita, Gary’s mother and business partner.

Much like she does in Always Sunny, Ellis offers a deadpan counterpoint to the bizarre events on-screen. She shares terrific chemistry with Cooper Hoffman in their characters’ unique moneymaking mother-son dynamic.

8 Christine Ebersole As Lucy Doolittle

Early in Licorice Pizza, Alana accompanies Gary to an acting gig as his chaperone. He appears in a stage show headlined by Lucy Doolittle, a major star in the Licorice Pizza universe.

Doolittle is a thinly veiled parody of Lucille Ball, and Christine Ebersole does a hilarious job of playing her as an affable star on-stage and an uncontrollable diva off-stage. When Gary ad-libs a crude joke for Alana, Doolittle angrily berates him backstage.

7 Tom Waits As Rex Blau

When a charming movie star takes Alana for a drink at the Tail o’ the Cock, he invites a filmmaker friend of his, Rex Blau, to join their table. Played brilliantly by Tom Waits, Blau was inspired by director Mark Robson.

Despite only appearing in this scene, Waits leaves a lasting impression on the audience with a delightfully eccentric performance. His electric presence takes over the whole restaurant as he invites the diners out onto the golf course to watch a motorcycle stunt.

6 Harriet Sansom Harris As Mary Grady

Mary Grady was a real child talent agent in Hollywood in the 1970s. She was the mother of actors Don Grady and Lani O’Grady. In Licorice Pizza, Grady is depicted as Gary’s agent and she’s played spectacularly by Harriet Sansom Harris.

Harris’ hilariously blunt line readings embody the brutality of Hollywood talent agents, while the fact that the artists she tears down are bright-eyed children gives each of her scenes darkly comedic overtones.

5 Benny Safdie As Joel Wachs

When Gary’s immaturity starts to get on her nerves, Alana volunteers to work for a local political campaign. Anderson cast Uncut Gems co-director Benny Safdie as Joel Wachs, the candidate spearheading the campaign.

Wachs was based on a real person, and Safdie’s complex performance captures both his confident public persona and the parts of his private life that he desperately hides from the press.

4 Sean Penn As Jack Holden

When Alana decides to pursue an acting career of her own, she does an audition opposite a brooding movie star in the mold of William Holden (unsubtly renamed “Jack Holden”), after which he asks her out for a drink and takes her to the Tail o’ the Cock.

As a similarly brooding, similarly grizzled veteran Hollywood movie star, Sean Penn was the perfect casting choice to play the fictionalized Holden.

3 Bradley Cooper As Jon Peters

There are a few extended cameos by A-listers in supporting roles in Licorice Pizza, but Bradley Cooper’s turn as film producer and former hairdresser Jon Peters is the one that has received by far the most buzz.

Whether he’s berating children or smashing storefronts or bragging about dating Barbra Streisand or threatening a stranger with a lighter and a gas pump, Cooper’s Peters is a mesmerizing on-screen presence.

2 Cooper Hoffman As Gary Valentine

Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late regular Anderson collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman, had never done any professional acting before the director gave him the lead role of actor-turned-entrepreneur Gary Valentine in Licorice Pizza. But the inexperienced actor really brings Gary to life in the movie.

Inspired by Tom Hanks’ producing partner Gary Goetzman, who was also a child actor and waterbed salesman, Gary is a unique character. Despite Gary’s unusual circumstances as a Hollywood player, Hoffman makes the character relatable by focusing on his adolescent naivety.

1 Alana Haim As Alana Kane

Like Hoffman, Alana Haim had never acted before she was cast as the female lead in Licorice Pizza. But she slips so seamlessly into the role and manipulates her character’s emotions so effortlessly that audiences would be forgiven for thinking she’d been acting for years.

Haim gives an incredible individual performance as an aimless twentysomething trying to figure out her place in the world, and also shares magnetic chemistry with Hoffman whenever their star-crossed characters share the screen.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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