Tubi<\/a>.)<\/p>\nThat is likely because Anderson didn\u2019t set out to make a hit piece on Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. In fact, seeds of the story were planted years earlier on the set of Magnolia, where Anderson listened to harrowing real-life wartime stories from veteran actor Jason Robards (who played Cruise\u2019s dying father in the ensemble movie).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is loosely inspired by L Ron Hubbard and Dianetics and the start of that \u2013 Scientology became something much different and larger \u2013 but yeah, for sure, the starting point was investigating what that movement was and how it began,\u201d Anderson told Gayle King of the origins of The Master.<\/p>\n
Asked if he came to any conclusions about Scientology, Anderson told Charlie Rose, \u201cI probably thought about it initially how everybody thought about it, that it was kind of peculiar and I wasn\u2019t sure what it was. Now, I think it\u2019s no more peculiar or weirder than anything else out there. I think it\u2019s helped a lot of people and \u2026 whatever it does for them, it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film follows Freddie Quell (Phoenix), a sex-obsessed, alcohol-ravaged World War II veteran and drifter who finds a sense of purpose when he falls into the orbit of Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman), the magnetic leader of a burgeoning philosophical movement known as \u201cThe Cause\u201d.<\/p>\n
As Freddie becomes increasingly enamoured with Dodd\u2019s teachings, he surrenders himself to \u201cprocessing\u201d \u2013 a brutal, rapid-fire interrogation designed to strip away past trauma and break his mind open. In the sequence, Hoffman\u2019s character bellows at Phoenix not to blink while peppering him with relentless, intrusive personal questions. It quickly became the film\u2019s most talked-about moment \u2013 a terrifyingly intimate scene widely viewed as an expos\u00e9 on Scientology\u2019s infamous and controversial \u201cauditing\u201d techniques.<\/p>\n
Phoenix, known for his extreme approach to method acting, noted to the Daily Actor how Hoffman\u2019s entire body shook with power while portraying the fictional cult leader: <\/p>\n
\u201cI did not want him to look at me, I did not want to make eye contact with him, tried to stay away from him. I was terrified of him, because he was a f***ing volcano.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet, Phoenix recalled that the excruciating interrogation scene also yielded an unexpected moment of levity: when Hoffman deadpanned the line about cigarettes, \u201cI like Kools \u2026 minty flavour\u201d both he and director Anderson broke down in fits of uncontrollable laughter.<\/p>\n
To maintain the sharp power imbalance between the two men, Anderson mischievously called Phoenix \u201cBubbles\u201d on set (a cheeky reference to Michael Jackson\u2019s pet chimp) while Hoffman was strictly addressed as \u201cThe Master\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anderson later described directing Hoffman on the film as like \u201chaving the keys to a good car\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just turn it on and let it go. It depends on what part he\u2019s playing, and in this part you\u2019ve got to call him the Master on set every day, and so he was full of life and energy and fun and the life of the party. But I have done films with him where it\u2019s not all laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Hoffman insisted to ABC News that he was never trying to do a direct impression of Hubbard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, I\u2019m thinking of many other people who were actually in my mind,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a little Orson Welles, certain kinds of people that would have that kind of gravitas, really. You know, personality, that kind of ambience. That aura. And because the film is influenced or inspired by probably some of the events around Scientology but ultimately, it isn\u2019t a film about it, so I didn\u2019t want to err on that side because that would have been confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n
(The Master is available to stream on Tubi<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDo your eyes blink? Don\u2019t blink.\u201d With those seven words, former Oscar rivals Joaquin Phoenix and Philip 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