Paul Thomas Anderson on Jonny Greenwood's Scores: "It's Like Christmas Morning"
Director Paul Thomas Anderson sat down with host Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music to discuss his long-running collaboration with Radiohead guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood. The two have worked together since 2007's There Will Be Blood, with Greenwood scoring every one of Anderson's feature films since. Anderson said waking up to a new music file from Greenwood is the best part of his day — "It's like Christmas morning every time," he said, according to Far Out Magazine.
How they work: starting from a first draft
Anderson described a process that begins far earlier than most director-composer relationships — not after editing wraps, but at the earliest stages of writing. He shares first drafts of scripts with Greenwood, or simply keeps him updated as a script develops.
The pair have also built up a stockpile of unused material over the years. Anderson said he sometimes revisits old music written for other projects that never made the cut, writes scenes around it, then tells Greenwood which piece he's pulled back out. He called the process "hand in hand."
From There Will Be Blood to One Battle After Another
Greenwood's 2007 score for There Will Be Blood, built around dark, dissonant strings, is widely credited with reshaping how film scores were written in the 21st century. He went on to score The Master, Phantom Thread, and most recently 2025's One Battle After Another — the film that brought Anderson a Best Director Oscar, bringing his career total to three Academy Awards.
Greenwood himself has been nominated twice for Best Original Score, for Phantom Thread and One Battle After Another, but has not yet won.
A partnership that runs both ways
The creative relationship isn't one-directional. Anderson has directed several music videos for Radiohead, including "Daydreaming" from the band's 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.
Far Out Magazine placed the duo alongside Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, and Steven Spielberg and John Williams, as one of the most recognizable director-composer pairings in recent film history.