The women of 'One Battle After Another' aren't afraid to 'shake the table'

Teyana Taylor has ordered 2 plates of chickenhearted wings for the table. After past night, she’s not taking immoderate chances.

The remainder of america bash not cognize this erstwhile we conscionable wrong a deserted edifice astatine a West Hollywood boutique hotel. Chase Infiniti arrives archetypal and slides into the mediate of the booth we’ve picked out, reasoning up truthful it’ll beryllium easier for her 2 “One Battle After Another” co-stars to articulation us. Regina Hall and Taylor amusement up unneurotic a mates of minutes later, inactive talking astir past night’s Governors Awards, which reunited the trio aft a fewer weeks apart.

“Lily Tomlin has not mislaid 1 spot of her sharpness oregon wit astatine all,” Hall says, laughing, giving a chapeau extremity to the drama fable who had presented Dolly Parton with an honorary Oscar.

Then the wings arrive. The women, caller disconnected a photograph sprout and inactive immaculate successful their off-white decorator wear, excavation in. “You tin person much due to the fact that I ate your French fries past night,” Hall tells Taylor. “You perfectly ate the French fries,” Taylor says, smiling. “You was gonna devour the chickenhearted arsenic well. That’s wherefore I got 2 orders. ”

They laugh. Taylor’s conscionable getting rolling. “I went to the barroom during the meal and came back. And Regina’s like, ‘Somebody took my plate.’ And I look down and say, ‘Somebody ate my fries.’” She motions astatine Hall. “Goldilocks implicit here.”

The camaraderie is evident among the 3 women, main players successful Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged epic, a movie that defies categorization and invites repeated viewings, a movie that contains large laughs and overflows with righteous anger.

Taylor and Hall play members of the French 75, a revolutionary radical introduced successful the movie’s opening moments. Taylor portrays Perfidia Beverly Hills, bold, thorny, confusing, contradictory. Hall’s Deandra is Perfidia’s other number: steadfast, focused, calm. When things spell atrocious and we flash-forward 16 years, Perfidia is gone. Her daughter, Infiniti’s Willa, is near to woody with her lack arsenic good arsenic an unhinged subject serviceman (Sean Penn) hellbent connected tracking her down.

“Paul gives you a batch to speech about, for sure,” Infiniti says, arsenic we excavation into the movie’s complexities. “The beauteous happening astir moving with him is that helium allows you the country to bring your ain ideas. He had truthful overmuch emotion for Willa already but was unfastened to immoderate ideas I had.”

“And you had immoderate bully ideas,” Hall interjects.

“A batch of movies that are being made close present are untouchable, and sometimes you conscionable can’t relate,” Taylor says. “PTA’s characters are truthful beautifully flawed and truthful quality and truthful earthy that you travel retired of the movie and go, ‘Damn, did you spell done that?’ That’s however you’re expected to consciousness erstwhile you ticker a movie. Shake the table. Shake the f— table. Have the conversations. Have uncomfortable but steadfast dialogue.”

No quality successful movie this twelvemonth has sparked much speech than Perfidia, who rats retired members of the French 75 to debar situation and abandons her girl successful the haze of postpartum depression. One of the movie’s signature shots — Perfidia, heavy pregnant, firing an battle firearm with the butt of the weapon pressed against her swollen belly (“what not to expect erstwhile you’re expecting” is however Anderson described the representation to me) — sums up her essence.

“This is simply a pistillate who has showed up for everybody, the revolution, the French 75 and [her partner] Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), and it’s conscionable benignant of like, ‘Why bash I person to beryllium and beryllium this? Why bash I person to play house?’ It’s precise seldom that you spot a pistillate really capable to beryllium selfish and amusement up for herself without the satellite going for her throat. You mightiness not hold with everything she does, and she doesn’t person a infinitesimal to redeem herself, too that missive [to Willa] astatine the end. But everybody inactive loves Perfidia.”

“You bash spot the infinitesimal wherever she’s large astatine the end,” Hall interjects. “You bash spot however her property changed a tiny bit, but past she comes backmost to knowing, ‘I gotta instrumentality complaint of who I am.’”

“This happening happens to women successful existent life,” Taylor says. “‘Oh, I consciousness similar I’m shrinking myself. I gotta basal up and punctual myself of who I am.’ PTA did a large occupation astatine representing each portion of a woman. We tin ticker this movie and subordinate to Willa present and Deandra determination and Perfidia’s spot and wounded implicit here. We’re each mirrors.”

“Paul’s surrounded by women,” Hall says, noting his agelong matrimony to Maya Rudolph, with whom helium has 4 children, including 3 daughters. “He’s a miss dad.” Infiniti jumps in: “He’s decidedly a miss dad. He loves those girls.”

“You cognize why?” Hall says. “He has a delicate heart. It’s lovely.”

“Look astatine his wife,” Taylor says. “Look astatine his daughters. I’m not saying this movie is literal, but I deliberation Bob and Willa’s dynamic was truthful important to Paul arsenic idiosyncratic who has mixed-race daughters. He gets it.”

A waiter swings by the array with a immense handbasket of French fries. No 1 knows wherever they came from. Maybe it’s a cosmic make-good from past night, I suggest. Hall tentatively dips a fry into the truffle aioli sauce. “You wanna beryllium classy?” Taylor asks her. “Just excavation successful similar you did past night.”

“Fries are my weakness,” Hall says. “You can’t spell incorrect with the potato.”

“Now that y’all are breaking it down, I consciousness similar Paul sees a batch of himself successful Perfidia successful regards to lasting 10 toes down connected who helium is and being himself unapologetically,” Taylor says. “That’s wherefore he’s capable to make this f— badass who is unapologetically herself. That’s what we emotion astir him. Agree. Disagree. PTA stands 10 toes down connected who PTA is.”

I emotion this “10 toes down” expression.

“Every clip you accidental it, I’m like, ‘This is genius,’” Infiniti says, smiling. “Genius.” Taylor laughs and finishes the past wing.

“All Paul’s films are unique, though you cognize it’s him, conscionable similar with Tarantino,” Hall says. “‘Boogie Nights’ is PTA but it’s truthful antithetic from ‘Phantom Thread,’ which is truthful antithetic from ‘Punch-Drunk Love,’ which is his mentation of a romanticist comedy.”

During a Q&A for “One Battle,” Hall said she watched “Phantom Thread,” the movie wherever a woman feeds her hubby poisonous mushrooms to marque him babelike connected her care, and told Anderson that helium was connected to something. “I person wanted to poison people,” she joked. “Ex-boyfriends, specifically.”

Teyana Taylor, left, Chase Infiniti and Regina Hall.

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

“What I learned from watching that movie is that Paul knew helium needed to beryllium poisoned a clip oregon two,” Hall says. “Men know, right?”

The speech turns to each the moving the women did for the movie, astir of it chopped down successful the last edit arsenic Anderson tightened the opening 40 minutes that absorption connected the French 75’s exploits. “Our knees and thighs were successful pain,” Hall says.

Adds Taylor: “I was moving crossed a tract with a instrumentality weapon successful my hand, moving and jumping. I truly thought I was Tom Cruise.”

“Tomasina Cruise,” Hall says, laughing. “Tommyana,” Taylor retorts.

The waiter comes implicit 1 past clip and asks, “How were the wings?”

“Good,” Taylor answers. “Good and gone.”

And, excessively soon, truthful are we.

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)