“It makes me emotional—how rich my life is with such amazing people. I’m so grateful to have met Paul and Cooper. Like, look at this thing we made that we’re so proud of. It’s all because of these weird cosmic instances that brought us together. The way that we met feels like a movie in itself.”
–Alana Haim, episode 256 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
We’re back! This week we sit with musician Alana Haim, star of the film from director Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza. Making her acting debut, Alana shares the serendipitous backstory that led to the project (6:00), the “7th grade forever theory” that helped her get inside the character of Alana Kane (13:17), a high school house party where she baked cake and fell in love (17:30), and the fortuitous afternoon she met future co-star Cooper Hoffman (23:23).
In the back half, we talk about the early days of HAIM (30:33) and how art helps transcend our own limitations (36:50), culminating in the night Alana drove a six-wheeler truck up (and down) the pitch black hills of the San Fernando Valley (35:55), as co-star Bradley Cooper rode shotgun. We also discuss the forthcoming HAIM tour (39:08), the song she is most excited to perform from Women in Music Pt. III, and what she hopes for as she enters her thirties (41:30).
Show-notes:
- Find showtimes for Licorice Pizza.
- Purchase tickets to HAIM’s 2022 tour.
- Read Lauren Wilford’s review of the film.
- Follow Alana on Instagram and HAIM on Instagram and Twitter.
- For more, hear our past conversations with Steven Soderbergh, Vicky Krieps, Janelle Monáe, Lorde, Kevin Abstract, Sleater-Kinney, Philip Baker Hall, Laura Dern, and Tituss Burgess.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by: Krishna Shenoi.
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