‘Phantom Thread’: Paul Thomas Anderson is now a meme and it is brilliant
Paul Thomas Anderson has social media. Well, kind of. The Inherent Vice director did a Reddit Q&A last Monday to promote his new romantic drama, Phantom Thread – but little did he know that he would end up becoming a meme.
Promoting the Reddit live chat the official Phantom Thread Twitter page posted a photo of Anderson holding a piece of white paper which said: “Hey Reddit, ask me anything.”
Anderson has previously admitted that doing press isn’t his most favourable part of promoting his films and it doesn’t seem his actors enjoy the obligations either. In an interview with GQ, he said,
“Adam Sandler doesn’t do interviews. Or Daniel Day (Lewis). You know? For that matter, I have made a few movies with Joaquin (Phoenix), who is absolutely the worst person to go promote your film.”
All that said it seems that PTA has taken press matters into his own hands by engaging with his fans for the first time since 2014.
Following the Q&A fans edited the image of Anderson with some humorous sayings, including: ‘I saw Dunkirk on IPad’ and ‘Give Saoirse Ronan the Oscar’.
Check them out below:
paul thomas anderson weights on some important issues pic.twitter.com/Aj3g6h2Yo3
— dilara (@marioncotilards) January 17, 2018
While three out of four of these brilliant memes are just for a bit of fun, one that might be a bit controversial is the image that says, ‘I ask God to forgive me for giving Mark Wahlberg a career’. This follows recent news that the Transformers actor was paid $1.5 million to do re-shoots on Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World following the axe of Kevin Spacey from the project, while his co-star Michelle Williams earned just $1000. Wahlberg, who rose to fame in Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), made a statement declaring that he will be donating his salary in William’s name to the Time’s Up campaign.
Serious stuff aside. It’s official, Paul Thomas Anderson (aka one of this generation’s most talented directors) is a meme, and I am here for it.
Phantom Thread is in theatres now.
