The Master - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Master or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Master

[darrell]

This marks the third collaboration between Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, following Charlie Wilson's War (2007) and Doubt (2008). Both actors received Oscar nominations in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories for both Doubt (2008) and The Master (2012).

[janice]

During the jail cell scene, Joaquin Phoenix breaks a real toilet. His actions were entirely improvised. Due to the historical past of the building where the scene took place, the toilet was considered "historical." Joaquin had no intentions to break the toilet, nor did he think it was possible.

[bernard]

Freddie hails from Lynn, Massachusetts, which is also where director Paul Thomas Anderson's father, Ernie Anderson was born.

[jesse]

Jillian Bell was cast in the film because Paul Thomas Anderson was a fan of her show Workaholics.

[janice]

The scene in the desert where Phillip Seymour Hoffman rides a motorcycle was very likely an homage to Melvin and Howard (1980) which was directed by Jonathan Demme. Demme is one of Paul Thomas Anderson's favorite directors and often cites him as a remaining influence on him and his work.

[ronnie]

The ship carrying the cult is named "Alethia", the Greek word for "Truth". It comes from the prefix "a-" and the word "lethe", which means oblivion. So it literally translates as "un-forgetfulness", which fits the intentions of The Cause of remembering past lives and forgotten memories.

[miriam]

Initially the film was set up with Universal but fell through due to problems with the scripts and the budget. It was later distributed by The Weinstein Company.

[nicholas]

Paul Thomas Anderson considers this movie to be his favorite of all the films he has ever made.

[beth]

Paul Thomas Anderson premiered the film in a surprise 70mm screening at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles in August 2012 following a 4k restoration of The Shining (1980), almost a full month before the official world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Those in attendance were told before the start of The Shining (1980) that there would be a special free screening after the film, but did not reveal that the screening would be the world premiere of this film.

[oscar]

Paul Thomas Anderson originally wanted to shoot the film utilizing VistaVision, the same widescreen format that Alfred Hitchcock used on some of his most important films during the late 1950's. Anderson later abandoned this idea in favor of the Super 65 cameras he would end up using. However, in 2019 Anderson would finally use VistaVision for his short film Anima, which served as a promotional video for the album of the same name by Thom Yorke, the longtime Radiohead bandmate of Jonny Greenwood, who composed the score for this film.

[maureen]

The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Dern and Rami Malek; and one Oscar nominee: Amy Adams

[ruby]

In 2018, Paul Thomas Anderson said that The Master was the film he was the most proud of.

[javier]

After Freddie's moonshine poisons one of the migrant workers at the cabbage farm and Freddie flees on foot, one of the migrant workers shouts "Boricua!" Boricua is not profanity, it is actually a Spanish word meaning a Puerto Rican living in the United States. Joaquin Phoenix was born and spent the first few years of his life living in Puerto Rico before coming to the states, so calling him a boricua is an apt title.

[linda]

Jeremy Renner was originally going to play Freddy when the film was prepped to shoot years ago, but when financing fell through, and Joaquin Phoenix was available following his I'm Still Here (2010) project, the filmmakers were able to cast him.

[darrell]

The outtakes reveal that while filming the scene of Master and Quell smoking cigarettes after their first "processing scene," Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix kept cracking up after Hoffman's line, "I like Kools... minty flavor," including in the take that made it into the film. In the film, it cuts away just before Hoffman started laughing.

[morris]

The first of three films in the current decade to be shot in 65mm and screened theatrically in 70mm. The subsequent titles were The Hateful Eight (2015) (also distributed by The Weinstein Company) and Dunkirk (2017).

[janice]

The New York Times reported in 2012 that Paul Thomas Anderson had originally conceived the idea of the film 12 years earlier, which would have been in 2000. Intriguingly, this was only one year after Anderson had directed the most famous Scientologist in the world, Tom Cruise, to an Oscar nomination in Magnolia (1999). At the press conference for the world premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival, Anderson reported that he had screened the film for Cruise out of respect, but that Cruise and Anderson remained friends and any discussions between them would remain private.

[sylvia]

The trailers for the film were edited by Paul Thomas Anderson himself without any permission from the studio. The trailers were notable for consisting mostly of footage not featured in the final cut of the film.

[bernard]

This marked Philip Seymour Hoffman's fourth and final Oscar nomination.