What Honor Do You Have?: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Master

Although it was a box office bomb upon its initial release, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the past decade. Anderson rejects the idea that it’s just a movie about Scientology, but its critique of the Church is pretty overt, so that’s what audiences latched onto.

Joaquin Phoenix wouldn’t snag an Oscar for Best Actor until he played the Joker, but he arguably should’ve won for his compelling, disturbed portrayal of Freddie Quell alongside an equally compelling Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams in this movie. Here are 10 fascinating details from the making of The Master.

10 Paul Thomas Anderson Got The Idea For The Master 12 Years Before It Hit Theaters

When The Master hit theaters in 2012, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson told the New York Times that he originally came up with the idea for the story 12 years earlier, which would’ve been in 2000.

This was one year after Anderson had directed Tom Cruise – arguably the world’s most famous Scientologist – to an Academy Award nomination in Magnolia. However, whether or not working with Cruise influenced the idea is unclear.

9 Joaquin Phoenix Improvised Breaking The Toilet In The Jail Scene

A few days into the shoot, Paul Thomas Anderson noticed that Joaquin Phoenix would really dive into the energy of a scene and use all the space available to him, even if it was outside the marks. So, the director told the lighting crew to keep the whole space lit in case Phoenix went off-grid and the camera needed to follow him.

The actor improvised a few of the film’s most famous moments, including when he breaks the toilet in the jail scene, which wasn’t scripted. Phoenix didn’t actually intend to break the toilet; he didn’t even think he could. Three takes of this scene were shot, but the first one ended up being used.

8 Reese Witherspoon Was The First Choice To Play Peggy Dodd

Amy Adams earned an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Peggy Dodd in The Master. Reese Witherspoon was the first choice to play the role, but she turned it down. Witherspoon ended up appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next movie, Inherent Vice.

Amanda Seyfried and Emma Stone were considered for the part of the Dodds’ daughter, but Ambyr Childers was eventually cast.

7 Contrary To Popular Belief, Lancaster Dodd Was Not Based On L. Ron Hubbard

Due to The Master’s commentary on the Church of Scientology, many viewers have assumed that Lancaster Dodd was based on L. Ron Hubbard. However, Paul Thomas Anderson’s screenplay drew influences from a number of different people.

He brought in elements of John Steinbeck’s life story and also mixed in some of the World War II drinking stories that Jason Robards told the director on the set of Magnolia. There are influences taken from Hubbard, but according to Anderson, “I didn’t want it to be a biography. It’s not the L. Ron Hubbard story.”

6 Paul Thomas Anderson Edited The Trailers Himself

Without any permissions or supervision from studio executives, Paul Thomas Anderson edited the trailers for The Master himself. These trailers were noteworthy for featuring barely any footage from the movie.

Most of the footage seen in the trailers was removed from the final cut, so moviegoers were able to go in fresh when The Master was released.

5 Joaquin Phoenix’s Parents Escaped From A Cult In The 1970s

The Master is a movie about the dangers of getting seduced by a cult. Its star, Joaquin Phoenix, was partly raised in a cult that his parents joined — the notorious Children of God — in the 1970s.

In the movie, Peggy Dodd announces that the Cause will be publishing her husband’s new book in Phoenix, Arizona, because “Phoenix” symbolizes new beginnings. This is the same reason why Phoenix’s family changed their name from “Bottom” after escaping the Children of God cult.

4 Jeremy Renner Was Originally Cast As Freddie Quell

When Paul Thomas Anderson first got the funding together to shoot The Master for Universal in 2010, Joaquin Phoenix wasn’t available to play the lead role of Freddie Quell because he was working on I’m Still Here. So, Anderson cast Jeremy Renner in the role. After financing the script, Universal decided to pass on The Master and it spent a brief stint in development hell.

When Anderson set it up with a new studio — which, unfortunately, was The Weinstein Company — Phoenix was done shooting I’m Still Here and was able to star in The Master.

3 Tom Cruise Hated The Movie’s Thinly Veiled Critique Of Scientology

Out of respect for his Magnolia star Tom Cruise, a dedicated follower of Scientology, Paul Thomas Anderson screened The Master for him to get his feedback. The Church itself has not officially commented on the film, but according to Anderson, Cruise objected to a few scenes in the film.

One scene in particular that Cruise hated was the scene in which Lancaster Dodd’s son confesses that his dad made up the teachings of the Cause, which mirrors a real-life confession made by L. Ron Hubbard’s son.

2 The Master Was The First Movie In Over A Decade To Be Shot On 65mm

Paul Thomas Anderson shot The Master on 65mm using Panavision’s System 65 camera, making it the first movie to be shot on this format in 16 years. The last one before The Master was Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 movie adaptation of Hamlet.

It was the first of three movies in the 2010s to be shot on 65mm, later followed by Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight in 2015 and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk in 2017.

1 Joaquin Phoenix Spent Three Months In Character

If the behind-the-scenes revelations about the recent Joker movie — which was carried on the shoulders of Joaquin Phoenix’s riveting performance doing overtime with a weak, derivative script — it’s that Phoenix is a fiercely committed leading man.

He reportedly stayed in character as Freddie Quell for the entire three-month shoot of The Master, which impressed Paul Thomas Anderson so much that he compared Phoenix to Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he’d just worked on There Will Be Blood.

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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