UFC boss Dana White just delivered some of the rawest life advice we’ve heard from a celebrity in a long time — and he did it on a random sidewalk, no publicists in sight.

White was walking down the street when he ran into Peter Fouad, a street photographer with 1.7 million followers on TikTok who’s built a massive audience with a dead-simple concept.

Fouad catches celebrities off guard, asks them one question — what’s the best life advice you’ve ever received? — snaps a Polaroid on his Fujifilm camera, and lets them keep the print.

The resulting video, shared on February 28, has now racked up more than 1.7 million views. And White’s answer? It hit different.

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“What’s the best life advice you’ve ever received that you could share with someone like me or someone who’s watching?” Fouad asked.

White went right in: “Listen, if you’re miserable when you’re broke, you’re gonna be really miserable when you make some money, trust me.”

He continued: “The key to life is to be happy. Figure out what you like to do, get up and do it every day and be as happy as you can possibly be.”

Then came the line that really landed: “Some of the happiest times of my life was when I was broke. Money changes everything.”

When Fouad asked if money changes things for the better, White’s reply was blunt. “Not always.”

“If you’re happy when you’re broke, you should be happy when you have some money,” White added.

Fouad thanked White for being humble and taking the time to answer before handing him his Polaroid.

Dana White Is Worth More Than $600 Million

Here’s what makes the whole exchange so compelling. White isn’t some motivational speaker riffing on abstract ideas about wealth. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at more than $600 million.

He bought the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for $2 million back in 2001 and led the organization from near-bankruptcy to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise, according to CBS News. In 2016, the UFC sold for $4 billion.

Last year, Paramount-Skydance agreed to pay nearly $8 billion to stream UFC on Paramount+, as well as on broadcast television.

As such, White is credited with transforming MMA into a mainstream sport and co-creating the hit reality show The Ultimate Fighter.

So when he says some of the happiest times of his life were when he was broke — and that money doesn’t always change things for the better — that’s coming from a man who turned a $2 million investment into a multi-billion dollar empire.

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And now he joins a pretty stacked lineup of stars who’ve stopped for Fouad’s Polaroid treatment.

Some of the celebrities featured in his recent videos include Chris Rock, Sauce Gardner, Post Malone, A$AP Rocky, Lamar Odom and Grant Cardone.

The format works because it strips away all the usual layers between a celebrity and the camera. No scripted interviews, no media-trained responses. Just a question on the sidewalk and whatever comes out.

White’s appearance proved no different — no publicists, no teleprompters, no carefully crafted talking points.

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By Joshua Tyler
| Published 1 hour ago

New space science fiction shows rarely catch fire right away. Star Trek was infamously cancelled after three seasons due to low ratings, only to rise from the ashes in rerun syndication. Firefly was cancelled after a few episodes, only to spawn a movie so good it ended up near the top of our list of the best space movies of all time. 

But one space series did the impossible. It captured the cultural zeitgeist right away. In the now-forgotten era of binge-watching via post office-mailed Netflix DVDs, it became an obsession for sci-fi fans and normies alike.

That should have been a launching pad for a generational sci-fi franchise to rival Star Wars. Instead, it spawned a spinoff series so disastrous that everything it built evaporated into thin air, leaving behind nothing but the sweat of shirtless wrestlers.

This is Why Caprica Failed.

Battlestar Galactica Finishes On A High

When the reimagined Battlestar Galactica finished in March 2009, it had the two things a franchise needs: audience heat and critical credibility. During its run, episodes of the show aired in theaters to eager packed audiences. It was a watercolor topic of conversation and sucked in even people who weren’t into science fiction. 

The final run averaged 2.2M viewers in the U.S., and the finale spiked to ~2.4M, the show’s best number in years. Those may not sound like big numbers, but they were huge for a show airing on SyFy, a basic cable channel people otherwise ignored.

When Battlestar Galactica arrived on DVD, it became an even bigger hit as people bought box sets and binged the show all at once in the pre-streaming era. Battlestar popularized the idea of binge-watching, setting the stage for the streaming future that was to come. 

The BSG universe was perfectly poised to go bigger and become the kind of mega-media franchise that lasts for generations. Star Trek turned itself into a mega-franchise after being canceled three seasons in, and here was Battlestar Galactica riding a wave of success that should have made it much easier to propel to the next level. 

Instead, the follow-through came in stuttered moves that dispersed attention and trained fans to stop checking in. Only a few short years after its success, Battlestar Galactica was a dead franchise, a once-in-a-generation missed opportunity by SyFy’s parent company, NBCUniversal. 

How NBCUniversal Squandered Battlestar Galactica’s Potential With Its Next Show

NBCU/Syfy did produce companion pieces: Razor (2007) during the run and half-hearted DVD-only The Plan (2009) after, but the core “what’s next” arrived as Caprica in 2010. 

Ronald D. Moore, the genius solo creator of Battlestar Galactica, only served as a co-creator on Caprica. He shares the title with a man named Remi Aubuchon, who’d previously worked with Moore in the BSG writers’ room. By all accounts, it was Remi, not Moore, who was the real architect of the show. Which may, at least in part, explain why it’s so different. 

Set more than fifty years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica is about how human bureaucracy accidentally invents the society that will lead to its own extinction. Caprica focuses on two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, as cutting-edge technology collides with grief, religion, and ego. It results in the birth of the Cylons. The idea was for it to happen slowly, very slowly, over the course of the show. 

In practice, Caprica played out like a soap opera, with few sci-fi elements on screen.  The show was creatively ambitious but also tonally totally different. 

Caprica was a prequel about corporate intrigue set in a universe where audiences expected gritty space combat. It gave fans something with the Battlestar Galactica name attached to it that bore no resemblance at all to the franchise they loved. Imagine if, after Star Trek was cancelled in the 60s, CBS had decided to follow it up with a Star Trek police procedural set on Earth, and you’ll start to understand what a horrible mistake Caprica was. 

Caprica needed patient scheduling and a clear runway to overcome the hurdle of its premise. It didn’t get either. Critics tried to give it a chance, but despite praising its intellect, ultimately they admitted it was unreasonably slow, way too talky, and wildly uneven. Again, basically nothing like the tension-filled world of Battlestar Galactica.

Ratings slid from a mid-season high of 1.6 M to fewer than 900,000 viewers after a hiatus; Syfy then canceled the show and pulled the remaining episodes from its schedule, burning them off months later. Whatever audience was willing to follow learned the wrong lesson: don’t invest. 

After Caprica, NBCUniversal Stopped Caring

It was a failure so immediate and extreme that whatever faith there was in BSG evaporated. Still, a last-ditch attempt to salvage things was thrown together. 

After Caprica, the series Blood & Chrome was announced, and it sounded like the crowd-pleaser they should have made in the first place. It was to be about young Adama in a Cylon War setting. 

Unfortunately, NBCUniversal had already quit on BSG. Rather than a fast series order and a serious investment, the project arrived as a 10-part web series on Machinima in late 2012 and only later as a TV movie in early 2013. 

Battlestar Galactica needed a grand Star Trek: The Motion Picture-style blockbuster movie to push it to the next level. NBCUniversal gave it a low-budget web series. Producer David Eick publicly positioned Blood & Chrome as “always meant” for online, but that didn’t make it better; it just made it more insulting. 

Ronald Moore Killed His Own Creation

The truth is, much of the fault lies at the feet of Ronald D. Moore. Before you come at me with your pitchforks, let me say that I love Ron Moore. And I loved him long before Battlestar.

Moore was a huge part of the creative force behind the best parts of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and his work is simply incredible. But when he finished Battlestar Galactica, he basically quit on the franchise he’d birthed into being.

He’s admitted he was burned out. Burned out on space stuff. He spent a decade working on Star Trek, then created his own space show, and he just didn’t want to do space sci-fi anymore. 

The thing is, that’s what he’s good at, and that’s where his success always was. Nothing he’s done since has come close to reaching the level of quality achieved in Star Trek and BSG. He’s done a lot since then, just none of it in space.

Ron Moore had a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and when BSG finished, he decided he wasn’t going to do anything with it. The result was a show no one wanted in Caprica, followed by the evaporation of everything he’d worked so hard at creating. 

He could have been the next Gene Roddenberry, but instead, he’s spent his time since making things like time-travel romance, with no real cultural footprint.

SyFy Gets Turned Into A Wrestling Channel

While all this was unfolding, the channel that launched Battlestar Galactica was repositioning itself. Sci Fi Channel rebranded to Syfy in 2009 and leaned harder into broader-appeal reality/wrestling alongside genre.

Turning your science fiction channel into a wrestling channel was always a bizarre choice. It diluted the sense that “space opera lives here,” right when Galactica fans needed a dependable home for successors. Trade coverage and industry commentary at the time called out the shift, with cancellations clustered around quality scripted sci-fi. 

NBCUniversal Throws Ron Moore’s Sci-Fi Universe Away

Universal eventually began announcing Battlestar Galactica feature films. That sounds positive, but it wasn’t. They were all reboots and not continuations of the show. There was one with Bryan Singer attached in 2011, later Francis Lawrence in 2016, then Simon Kinberg in 2020. None of them actually happened.

What had happened was that NBCUniversal had clearly signaled to fans that the once-in-a-generation sci-fi universe Ron Moore spent 10 years building was being thrown in the garbage, and that if BSG ever came back, they’d be starting all over from scratch. Universal did the impossible, producing a hit sci-fi show. And then they decided to erase it and start over rather than continue to grow on that foundation.

Imagine if, instead of giving William Shatner’s Captain Kirk a movie, they’d recast him and redid all the same episodes again. Or instead of introducing a new show set in the same universe, in the form of The Next Generation, Star Trek had wiped the slate clean, created a new sci-fi universe, and slapped the old name on it.

Unfortunately, that’s now standard practice in Hollywood. A practice that accelerated beyond all reason after BSG. That mentality is why there has never been another long-running sci-fi universe like Star Trek or Star Wars, and why there will never be. Battlestar Galactica was perfectly poised to take that trip, but no one at Universal dared to make a real investment.

Rachel Lindsay is speaking out about ex-husband Bryan Abasolo’s “low” discussion of her fertility struggles.

After news broke in January 2024 that Abasolo, 46, had filed for divorce from Lindsay, 40, he spoke with divorce coach Rene Garcia in an in-depth interview about their relationship.

“He said things in that interview that I had never even personally talked about,” Lindsay recalled during the Wednesday, March 4, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “He talks about fertility, and it wasn’t even the truth of what he was saying. Other than saying I wanted to have kids, I’ve never talked about that.”

She added, “Nobody knows the story with that.”

Us Weekly has reached out to Abasolo for comment.

During the July 2024 interview, Abasolo claimed “other things were made a priority” in their relationship, so they were unable to start a family.

“Women have a different biological clock than us,” Abasolo claimed. “It was going to be me going along with a plan, but I was under a hell of a lot of stress.”

Abasolo said it was “tough” to watch Lindsay experience fertility struggles, noting that he “felt terrible” about it. “Just watching her sadness, it broke my heart,” he added. “It was like I was failing expectations on all fronts.”

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During Wednesday’s podcast episode, Lindsay also addressed claims that she was “lying” about the status of her and Abasolo’s marriage during public appearances ahead of their divorce.

“We were working on it,” she clarified. “We tried. We were in therapy. We were trying to work on it. I’m not going to talk about the fact that, ‘Hey, we’re in therapy and we’re trying to work on our relationship.’ I don’t think inviting people in, in that way — because we were trying to save it — would have helped it at that time.”

Lindsay added, “I wasn’t being fake. I’m living my life, but I’m not giving you every single detail about it.”

Lindsay appeared on “The Viall Files” podcast in December 2023, weeks before Abasolo filed for divorce. She said she did not know he was “about” to split up with her when that podcast was released.

“I knew we were having issues, but everything I said was true. We did want to have kids. I still wanted to have kids,” she said. “Maybe I wasn’t being honest with myself about how bad it was in the moment.”

Lindsay added, “Maybe we weren’t good, but we were working on it.

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Cardigans are fine, but nothing screams ‘confidence’ quite like a long blazer. Katie Holmes and Meghan Markle started the trend, and now it’s all we see rich moms wearing from New York City to Los Angeles. These stylish outer layers make any outfit appear expensive, and get this: Our favorites start at just $9.

Plus, Holmes and Markle aren’t the only A-listers wearing blazers. Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Olivia Wilde are all embracing the look, wearing them with everything from heels to sweats. These picks from Amazon, Walmart, Nordstrom, Quince and more are beyond versatile, so whether you’re running errands or leading a meeting at work, you’ll look and feel like a celebrity rich mom.

Celeb-Inspired Blazer Looks

1. Total Classic: Both loose and tailored, this classic jacket goes from casual to dressy with a quick change of pants. Snag it for 41% off!

2. Nantucket Socialite: Channel nautical vibes in this striped blazer that makes even jeans appear polished. Wear it with boat shoes to nail the aesthetic.

3. So Soft: Knit fabric gives this soft layer a loungewear-like appeal while gold buttons elevate the look. It’s the perfect balance of cozy and luxe.

4. Boyfriend Fit: Love a roomy fit? This oversized piece is smooth, laid-back and mega flattering, especially if you cinch your waist with a belt.

5. Sleek Hybrid: Combine a cardigan and a blazer with this one-of-a-kind jacket that’s thin enough layer without looking bulky. You’ll wear it from spring to fall.

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6. East Coast: Abercrombie & Fitch is a one-stop shop for preppy style, so it’s no wonder this navy blazer is flying off the shelves. (Psst: it’s on clearance.)

7. Colors Galore: Give your wardrobe a pop of color with this vibrant number that’s fun yet sophisticated. Vertical back seams add a lengthening touch.

8. For All: Skip the pricey tailoring! This linen-blend blazer comes in petite, regular and tall, so you’re destined to find your fit.

9. Sweater Vibes: Look effortlessly put together in this lightweight layer that feels like loungewear, but appears so elegant. You’ll wear it from work to cocktails.

10. Tweed Knit: Everything about this cropped jacket is refined, including the gold buttons, square pockets and round neckline that highlights your collarbone.

11. Travel-Friendly: Not only is this spandex-blend blazer stretchy, but the double-knit fabric resists pilling, fading and wrinkling. You’ll want it for business trips and weekend getaways.

12. Designer Vibes: Make a statement in this chic blazer that comes in nearly a dozen eye-catching prints. Shoppers say it dresses up or down in seconds.

13. Classy Corduroy: This transitional staple is the easiest throw-on-and-go layer for busy mornings. With the right amount of structure, it’s the key to looking sharp.

14. 50% Off: Colors are selling out as we type, so don’t wait to score this timeless Old Navy blazer for half off. Shoppers say it runs big, a major bonus for comfort connoisseurs like Us.

15. Spring-Ready: Pink, blue, purple, oh my! This colorful bestseller has cinched sleeves and a notched collar that give it a boutiquey style.

16. Budget Pick: Whether you have $10 or $1,000 in your wallet, this blazer makes you appear millionaire-rich — for less than your morning Starbucks order.

17. Oh-So Slimming: Elongate your torso without even trying in this button-free blazer that features clean lines and a zigzag print. Deep pockets are a functional perk.

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Every great filmmaker will be the first to admit that it’s rarely a solo endeavor and that the strength of the story is served by the collaborators they are fortunate enough to have along for the ride. And in the most fortunate situations, they discover a collaborator who transforms struggle into triumph as they create an experience wholly unique, intentional, and entertaining. To say that Andy Jurgensen has been instrumental to the success of One Battle After Another and its auteur, Paul Thomas Anderson, is nothing less than an understatement. Ahead of Jurgensen’s first Academy Award nomination for Best Editing at this year’s ceremony, the fortuitous circumstances are not lost on him.

Jurgensen has worked with Anderson going back to his time as an editor’s assistant on movies like Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread. He became more involved in the filmmaker’s world through his editing work on musical projects with artists like Joanna Newsom, Haim, and Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Ever since a scheduling conflict opened the door to edit Licorice Pizza, Jurgensen has found himself among Anderson’s tight-knit group of collaborators on the verge of winning golden statues for their front-running film One Battle After Another, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn.

For an editor with limited experience splicing feature-length projects on his own, it’s quite a feat for Jurgensen to come this close to glory among his Academy peers. With the awards ceremony just weeks away, Jurgensen sat with Collider to discuss his journey into Anderson’s inner circle, working on location to assemble this restless epic, and the secret weapon that is Maya Rudolph.

Andy Jurgensen and Paul Thomas Anderson’s First Projects Were With Music Legends

COLLIDER: Right before you jumped on, a Haim song came on. I was wondering if you edited [the music video] “Lost Track?” Because I couldn’t find the editing credit for that one.

ANDY JURGENSEN: Yeah, that was… I don’t want to say a scramble, but we were trying to figure out something for that. We had to put it together really quickly. And one of the things we wanted to, when we re-released Licorice Pizza in theaters — I think it was around the Oscars — we wanted to add this music video to it as a special thing. So… that was a rush to get it done. I remember, okay, we got to get it mixed so we can attach it to the DCP [theatrical file].

Luckily, it was very well contained and [Haim] is great. They like to go with the flow with anything and I think that’s why Paul likes to continue working with them, because they’re just so great. They’re part of the family now, you know? Because we’ve been doing their videos for so long, and then, of course, all three of them are in Licorice Pizza. It’s just nice seeing them at things, and it’s amazing to see their success too.

I want to go back to the beginning and how you started out as an assistant editor on Inherent Vice and then Phantom Thread. It was also around that time that you started editing music videos for Paul, especially a project with Radiohead and Thom [Yorke] and Jonny [Greenwood]. How did that transition happen?

JURGENSEN: Inherent Vice was the first… you know, his inner circle is very tight-knit and always has been. So I think he just was — I don’t want to say testing me, but it kind of was just getting my vibe. And then, because we do these music videos pretty quickly — and I think that’s the brilliance of them, to be honest — he doesn’t overlook them. We have to shoot it and turn it over really quickly. He just needed help to quickly, “see what this becomes.” The first ones we did were the Joanna Newsom videos, which were more experimental, if you remember that one.

He just wanted to play with what this could be, because they had shot a bunch of different things. He just called me, and he was like, “Hey, why don’t you come this weekend, and we’ll just use the Avid [editing system] that I’d already rented for [Phantom Thread]. Let’s see what we could do.” He maybe wanted a fresh set of eyes for it. Maybe he had seen the kind of things that I could do when I was an assistant editor, or things that I was bringing to the table.

I think it was just a way for us to work together. So it just kind of started on these smaller projects. I saw that through to the end and then the end of the projects got bigger and bigger and bigger. I remember we shot this Radiohead music video … that was a larger project that we got through. Then it just snowballed from there, and then we did this documentary, Junun, where he had all this footage that he had shot with Jonny in India. I was still an assistant editor. I was on some other movie, and I was coming in after work. We were working on it at night or on the weekends, and it was just fun… to see that evolve into the final product. I was able to pull so much information from the other editors that I had worked with, with Paul.

I was able to get that background knowledge and then put my own spin on it from my working with him on these music videos … You figure out your working relationship and a shorthand of how you communicate. At this point now, I almost know things that he’s going to gravitate towards, and he’s going to like, or I can just see even when he’s watching the footage. I can tell, “Okay, this is good or bad.” We’re not afraid to challenge each other, but we also know the sensibilities, especially with Paul being a director that has a vision. You want to be able to elevate that vision even higher.

Andy Jurgensen Didn’t Expect To Edit Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Licorice Pizza’

Image via Universal Pictures

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I was going to ask about developing that cinematic language that you have established, and especially going into your first major picture that you edited with Licorice Pizza. Was that a crazy transition knowing that this was a big project? Paul Thomas Anderson movies are all very unique. You have to hit that level.

JURGENSEN: I know. I got lucky in a sense. I had been working on things for a long time. But it was COVID and Dylan [Tichenor], who had edited Phantom Thread, was on another movie. Also, music is such a big part of that movie as well, so not that it’s a music video, but there’s a musicality to the movie because there are so many needle drops.

I felt a little apprehensive. Am I going to be able to do this? One Battle After Another was daunting just to read the script, “This is going to be a crazy, epic movie.” The last movie was so different than this. I’ve never cut a car chase before or anything like that. I had, as an assistant, worked on some action-y movies, but it’s daunting to think about.

One thing I like about him is that even though he has a bigger budget, he still has a scrappy mentality. It’s a pretty small, core group on set when we’re doing bigger action things. There’s all the stunt people and there are all sorts of background [actors], but he really likes to keep it small and tight when we have more intimate scenes, it’s not like a huge production.

He likes to do things scrappy because that’s how he’s always done it. But we still will do our daily screenings, which he’s been doing forever. But this time we can take the projector with us to all of our locations instead of a screening room and have the luxuries of that.

But we still can do the thing that we’ve been doing for him for like 25 years. For me, I’ve been with him 12 years. Even with advice, we were doing these daily screenings, and I was sitting there and taking notes. It was the exact same, even for this movie.

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You mentioned being on set, so you’re … basically assembling the movie as you’re as you’re making it.

JURGENSEN: Yeah, usually the editor’s on at the beginning assembling, sometimes it’s on location, but sometimes it’s just back in L.A. or wherever the cutting rooms are, and they’re just sending the footage, and you’re just plugging away. For us, it’s more that the screenings are so important. Just seeing everything big, any technical issues.

I’ve talked in other interviews about when Paul has music that he’s piping in, as we’re watching takes, ideas from Jonny or for needle drops, or we are getting a feel for what a scene could be — just the initial feeling of it. And I’m taking notes of which takes are the best, things that we like or don’t like. Then during the day when they’re shooting, I’m starting to assemble stuff digitally.

We also had a break during the shoot. We had a two or three-month break because we were waiting for Benicio [del Toro]. So we actually got to build a bunch of sequences together and get a feeling for the pace and holes. The whole prologue was done-ish [as well as] a bunch of stuff at the high school. It’s so nice to be able to work with the director for a couple months, really focusing on the edit, getting music in, and then you are like, okay, these are the pieces that we still need to shoot. It’s a nice luxury.

Andy Jurgensen Carefully Crafted ‘One Battle After Another’s Epic Car Chase

Image via Warner Bros.

You briefly mentioned the car chase and how you’d never really done something like that. I wanted to ask you about that because it was like an anti-car chase scene. The way it’s put together is not like what you would see in The Italian Job or Fast and Furious movies. What was the challenge in that?

JURGENSEN: We didn’t have a storyboard, but he had a shot list of things that he wanted. We had done tests on the road with some of the rigs and took time to figure out, especially the point of view shots, so you could see where the roads go up and down and the cars appear and disappear. We had to figure out how that was going to work and how it was most effective. We’d done a little bit of tests and then, basically, they sat down the road and figured out what time of day they would shoot the exterior stuff so that it could all look like the same time. Then they shot the interiors later in the day … so they could pump some lights in.

The mirrors were such an important element, being able to look back and to have to see that. It was a Hitchcockian car chase. There’s always that element of looking in the mirror and seeing something in the distance and seeing it coming closer and closer. What I ended up doing was — as we were getting the dailies in, we were watching it on the big screen, but I was kind of building it digitally — select from all the different perspectives so that we could review what we had. And we knew we had the best bits, and then we actually went back to the road at the end of our time being at that location so we could get a few little things that we still missed or just heighten it.

It was a matter of just laying it out, organizing it properly, making sure we had all the right elements. It started out really long. There was a structure to it. So we knew, but I was finding the best pieces, and then I kept going through it and tightening. “Oh, I probably could use this shot, this can replace these three shots.” Of course, when the music comes in, and you start getting the sound design, you add more to it and you can tweak things. I don’t do this on a lot of scenes, but this is something where I was shaving like two frames off, three frames off the head of this, just to get it a little bit tighter. Just so it felt perfect. Especially with Jonny’s music too. It has a propulsive beat to it. So you have to be mindful of the musicality of the scene and how it’s relating to the music and the sound. I was making tweaks even during the final mix.

A PTA script is going to balance levity and intention masterfully. And you’re that final touch in combining these elements. What is your philosophy when it comes to those moments and making sure one doesn’t outweigh the other?

JURGENSEN: I think it goes back to Paul’s sensibility and just knowing his movies, that it is always a little bit of a mix of genres. There always is humor in all of his movies. Phantom Thread is kind of a comedy, really — demented and all — and it’s a relationship, but there’s comedy elements too. So he always likes to lean into humor whenever he can. Everything’s so serious nowadays, it seems like. [Humor] is more effective to get a message across. It feels more real when you add some levity to it because that’s how we all live our lives.

If it was intense the entire time for two-and-a-half hours, it would just be exhausting. He knows, structurally, it has to build to something and then there has to be relief. There has to be a spot where the audience can take a breath for a second and come down from the high, so then you can build it up again, and then you can come down from that high again and then build up for the final sequence. It just makes it more exciting, it makes it more. You don’t know where it’s going to go. So, just having these moments, like the Christmas Adventurers scenes, act as these… the camera’s not moving. We’re just looking at close-ups. We can rest for a second, and then we can start to build up again. We had test screenings around the country. It was important to see how the tonal shifts worked and make sure people were still laughing and people were still getting it, and also find out where we could push the humor further. There were some good things that came out of the screenings because we were able to.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ Was a Hugely Collaborative Experience

What was the sequence that you were most satisfied to crack? When you figured it out, and you were just like, “Oh, this is beautiful.”

JURGENSEN: The DNA test sequence is the one area that we did the most work in. The River Hill [chase scene] obviously took a lot of time, but that was always like that, and we were just tweaking and getting it perfect. But the DNA test, the way we saw it, it was a lot longer. So they are just sitting there waiting for the results. And they had their banter back and forth. For a while, it was its own scene that lasted a really long time, which was effective in one way. It’s scary. There’s the comedy elements too.

I don’t know, something wasn’t right. Actually, there was no music there too. So it was… it was a weird feel. What we ended up doing was trying to go through and really pare it down to its essentials. And then, using these cutaways of Danvers and D’Andra, where he’s like interrogating her. We [threw] that scene away for a while and weren’t using it. But we ended up bringing it back so we could reshape the DNA test. We even moved lines around in different orders, from how it was shot, to make it more of a tit-for-tat thing. Then we added this music from Jonny that has a military feel, and it’s like a ticking clock — so you can feel there’s something at stake.

Propulsive, but not in the same way as one of the chase scenes, but more as just creating tension. It took a lot of versions to figure that out and just to get it right. Luckily, I think we figured it out. I think we did. It just had to be substantial enough, but it couldn’t be too long because you’re so far into the movie at that point. It’s all leading up to the two of them meeting. So it’s got to be important and strong, but you can’t just glaze over it either.

You talk about these screenings and how it’s a close family, working with Jonny on the score a lot and the same actors who are involved. When you do those screenings and you’re getting feedback, who do you find a lot of really good feedback from other than from Paul?

JURGENSEN: That’s a really good question. Maya [Rudolph, Anderson’s partner], for sure. She’s always there in some of the early screenings. Especially for some of the humor. Paul has a set of friends and also our crew, like [director of photography Michael Baumann], our producers, everyone. It’s interesting.

Some directors… they hold things so close to them and they’re like, “No, my producer’s not going to see it until 10 weeks after.” Obviously we need enough time to make sure it’s decent. But Sara [Murphy], our producer, will come over and we’ll just say, “Okay, here’s half of the movie,” or, “Here’s sections.” And, of course, the actors are coming over at some points and they’re giving their input. It’s a combination of people that will be honest with us and are trusted, but then we also bring in people who don’t know anything. That’s nice too. That gives a nice objective point of of what things are confusing.

It’s a process and Paul’s been doing this for 30 years, so he has his way of doing it, and I’m not going to change that. You mentioned Jonny. I think Jonny is one of the first people we show the movie to as well, because he’s actually sending us music during production. Obviously, he’s reading the script and having discussions with Paul, and we’ll sometimes send him dailies of raw footage so he can get an idea of certain things. But he’s still in London. Paul really trusts him on just how things are working, especially when we cut in some of his songs. They just have a really good, creative relationship, and Jonny’s so unreal. He’s such an amazing musician. They have a similar sensibility of how they’re creative, because Jonny’s unconventional as well as Paul. They work well together.

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One Battle After Another

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Release Date

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September 26, 2025

Runtime

162 minutes

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Director

Paul Thomas Anderson

Writers

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Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon

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