Summary
- Real-life inspirations like Gary Goetzman and Jon Peters bring authenticity to the nostalgic world of Licorice Pizza.
- Alana Haim's debut and Cooper Hoffman's role as Gary Valentine add personal connections to the film's characters.
- Licorice Pizza showcases a mix of real figures like Joel Wachs and Lucy Doolittle alongside fictional characters for a rich storytelling experience.
Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza (2021) may be a fictional coming-of-age story, but the nostalgic Hollywood film features many characters portraying or based on real-life people. Licorice Pizza documents the misadventures, tumultuous friendship, and romance of Alana Kane (Alana Haim), a photographer's assistant in her mid-20s, and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a 15-year-old actor and entrepreneur. Set in the early 1970s, Licorice Pizza also includes real Hollywood-set memories of Anderson and his friend Gary Goetzman.
Licorice Pizza has an unmatchable quality of realism compared to the director's past films, partially because of how close-to-home the stories are to his real life. Haim makes her film debut in Licorice Pizza, but she and her family have a long history with the director, as her mother was once his teacher, and the director helmed many of HAIM's music videos. Alana’s entire family is in Licorice Pizza, where they essentially play themselves. Aside from the Haim family, Cooper Hoffman, the son of PTA's frequent collaborator, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, also appears as Gary Valentine.
Licorice Pizza Ending Explained: What Alana & Gary's Final Scene Means
Gary and Alana share an ambiguous last scene in Licorice Pizza - here's what the ending means for the characters in PTA's nostalgic movie.
Gary Valentine
Based On Gary Goetzman
Licorice Pizza's leading man, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), is based on Paul Thomas Anderson's friend Gary Goetzman, a former child actor. Goetzman, now a well-known producer who frequently collaborates with Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks (Masters of the Air, A Man Called Otto), inspired almost all the specific anecdotes within Licorice Pizza from his teenage years. Goetzman starred in the Lucille Ball film Yours, Mine and Ours (changed to Under One Roof in Licorice Pizza) as a teenager, along with many other acting credits from this time.
Gary Goetzman is a five-time Emmy winner for producing Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific, Game Change, and Olive Kitteridge.
Goetzman was also a frequent hustler and businessman who owned waterbed and pinball companies. One of Licorice Pizza's most memorable scenes occurs when Gary and Alana deliver a waterbed to producer Jon Peters' house, a situation that happened in Goetzman's time as a waterbed salesman, though in a much less monstrous manner.
Jon Peters
Bradley Cooper Played The Real-Life Producer
Jon Peters, played by Bradley Cooper in Licorice Pizza, is a real producer and former hairdresser from the '70s. An interesting tidbit is that he was dating actress Barbra Streisand at the time of the film's setting, a point Cooper's portrayal reiterates to Gary. Jon produced Barbra Streisand's A Star is Born remake, an excellent Easter egg, considering Bradley Cooper remade A Star is Born in 2018. In Licorice Pizza, Jon Peters enters the plot when Gary and Alana deliver a waterbed to his home, an experience that the real-life Gary Goetzman had.
Peters gave PTA his blessing for Bradley Cooper to portray him in Licorice Pizza, which became one of the most remarkable aspects of the film. Peters stipulated that Paul Thomas Anderson could put him in the movie as long as Cooper used his "favorite pick-up line" when flirting with women in which he asks them if they like peanut butter sandwiches. A controversial figure, the producer came into the press again around (2018) when Jon Peters' sexual harassment allegations and lawsuits resurfaced.
Jack Holden
Based On William Holden
Licorice Pizza's motorcycle-riding actor, Jack Holden, is based on Oscar-winning movie star William Holden. PTA told Variety that Jack Holden is a "stand-in for William Holden," as he felt it more appropriate not to use the actor's real name. Played by Sean Penn, Jack Holden's Licorice Pizza character enters the movie when Alana gets an audition to star opposite him in a film and is later thrown off of his motorcycle when he performs a stunt on a golf course.
Considering that Licorice Pizza mentions "Jack" Holden riding a motorcycle in several films, including one with Grace Kelly, it is no mystery that this is supposed to be Sunset Boulevard's William Holden.
Licorice Pizza Cast & Character Guide
Licorice Pizza has an ensemble cast of newcomers and movie stars, and here's the cast & character guide for Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film.
Joel Wachs
A Real-Life Politician From The 1970s
Another real-life figure whose name remains unchanged in Licorice Pizza is Joel Wachs, a politician who ran for council member in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Played by Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie in Licorice Pizza, Wachs' role becomes significant when Alana quits Gary's waterbed business and volunteers on Chairman Wachs' campaign.
Joel Wachs was a Los Angeles City Council member for three decades.
In one of Licorice Pizza's sad, self-realization moments for Alana, Wachs calls her character to a restaurant as a ploy to hide his boyfriend from the public and avoid any "distraction" from his political goals. Wachs' sexuality would remain private until 1999 when he ran for mayor and began heavily advocating for gay rights and the arts.
Lucy Doolittle
Based On Lucille Ball
Licorice Pizza's Lucy Doolittle character is another example of slightly changing a real-life Hollywood actor's name as deemed appropriate by PTA. Doolittle's role is early in the film as an actress leading Gary's variety show Under One Roof. Anderson keeps the inspirational actress's first name and changes the last, as Lucy Doolittle is based on none other than Lucille Ball.
Lucy's place in Licorice Pizza connects to Gary Goetzman's real-life experience. He was about the same age as Cooper Hoffman's character when he starred in the film Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. Licorice Pizza's Under One Roof is a stand-in for 1968's Yours, Mine and Ours. Goetzman starred as Greg, one of Ball's character's (Helen Noth-Beardsley) step-children.
Fred Gwynne
Played By John C. Reilly
Another real star of the '60s portrayed as himself on screen is Fred Gwynne. Paul Thomas Anderson's frequent collaborator, John C. Reilly, appears as Gwynne in a blink-or-you'll-miss-it scene in Licorice Pizza. As Gary sets up his "Soggy Bottom" stand at the Teenage Fair, Licorice Pizza pans over to a booth for The Munsters' original cast, where Fred Gwynne (Reilly) is dressed as Herman Munster and assures kids that he is, in fact, the real Herman Munster.
Like many other booths in the Teenage Fair sequence, The Munsters was a product of the '60s. The TV show and Gwynne's character maintained a significant pop culture presence with nostalgia, to which Licorice Pizza pays perfect homage.
B. Mitchel Reed
Reed Was A Real-Life DJ In The 1970s
After Alana and Gary decide to go into business together for Fat Bernie's Water Beds, the two schedule a live radio ad as done by B. Mitchel Reed. Licorice Pizza portrays the radio jockey as the real Reed in a two-minute scene. B. Mitchel Reed, who is played in the movie by accomplished voice actor Ray Chase. Reed was best known for his disc jockey career on Top 40 and rock stations in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, which is a perfect homage to the music culture of this era that title.
Licorice Pizza: The True Story Behind Leonardo DiCaprio’s Father’s Cameo
Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza is full of cameos from actors and industry professionals, including Leonardo DiCaprio's father George.
Mary Grady
Played By Harriet Samson Harris
In a small but memorable scene, Licorice Pizza features a segment where Alana and Gary meet with Mary Grady, a real-life child actor agent from the ‘70s. Played by frequent PTA collaborator Harriet Samson Harris, Mary Grady was a well-known talent agent for many of Hollywood’s greatest child stars of the era. Licorice Pizza’s real-life Grady was also the mother of child actors Don Grady (The Mickey Mouse House) and Lani O’Grady.
Why Licorice Pizza Missed Out At The Oscars
Haim's snub and the bigger winners explained
Licorice Pizza Oscar Nomination |
Who Won The Award |
|---|---|
Best Picture (P.T. Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner) |
Coda (Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger) |
Best Director (P.T. Anderson) |
The Power of the Dog - Jane Campion |
Best Original Screenplay (P.T. Anderson) |
Belfast – Kenneth Branagh |
Among nine other films, Licorice Pizza was nominated for Best Picture and didn't win — but what upset many fans was that Alana Haim got snubbed entirely. Licorice Pizza was up against quite a formidable group in of the Best Picture Oscar. Between King Richard, Don't Look Up, Belfast, and Dune, it was perhaps surprising that the indie movie got a nomination in the first place, though well-deserved. Ultimately, however, Licorice Pizza was beaten by fellow coming-of-age tale CODA for the evening's top prize.
Yet, despite this recognition, Haim's omission from the nominations list was still something of a shock. Haim played Alana Kane in the movie, and did a quietly phenomenal job in the semi-autobiographical story. However, some of the more understated aspects of her performance, along with her inexperience as an actor, may have caused the Academy to snub her in favor of big names like Jessica Chastain, Kristen Stewart, Olivia Coleman, Nicole Kidman, and Penélope Cruz. Jessica Chastain won the Oscar, while Licorice Pizza's Alana Haim didn't get any recognition – perhaps somewhat unfairly.
How Licorice Pizza Compares To Other Paul Thomas Anderson True Stories
Liquorice Pizza Stands Out As More Personal
As a filmmaker, P.T. Anderson has created movies about true stories and based moments in his films on real people or situations. In Licorice Pizza, the idea was to take something very personal to Anderson and turn it into a coming-of-age story, making it close to the filmmaker's heart. However, this differs from past movies, which often took things outside his life and shone a light on them. His other films based on true stories usually seemed much more detached and technical than Licorice Pizza.
An example is The Master. While not technically based on Scientology, Philip Seymour Hoffman's character was inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of that religion. However, as a film about the dangers of cults, it was more loosely based on his life, rather than a direct biopic. The film also had touches of stories Jason Robards told him about his time in the Navy and a little about the life of John Steinbeck (via Newsweek). Because it was stories Anderson heard rather than first-hand experience, the movie was less heartfelt than Licorice Pizza.
Boogie Nights is another movie based on Anderson's childhood. In this case, it is the pornography industry in the 1970s and 1980s. As it takes place in the same timeframe, the movies share a lot in common. However, since this is based on a movement and not specific people, it plays out more like a series of events rather than a story about two young adults coming of age, as in Licorice Pizza. Regardless, it also stands as one of Anderson's best films and remains a beloved cult classic.
Licorice Pizza
- Release Date
- December 25, 2021
- Runtime
- 133 minutes
- Director
- Paul Thomas Anderson
WHERE TO WATCH
Licorice Pizza is a 2021 comedy-drama named after the Los Angeles record store chain of the same name. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza focuses on Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), who navigate San Fernando Valley in 1973 while growing up and experiencing love for the first time.
- Writers
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
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