JR: Well, he's a pretty subversive character. I think you can tell in his movies ... It's sort of like... the truth about the human condition or the truth about emotions and what people are really feeling has become subversive because most of what we're presented in popular culture is total bullshit. It's some kind of commercially facile version of the way things are instead of the complicated truth of human existence.

THC: Most of the characters in Magnolia only interact with one or two others. That's unusual with such a sprawling cast. How does it change the group dynamic that was so obviously at play in Boogie Nights?

JR: Yeah, it's odd... This was a very challenging movie for all of us to make after the kind of picnic we had on Boogie Nights. But at the same time, we all know each other really well, so it wasn't like there's some stranger doing some scene that I don't even know what it's about.... So we still felt connected to each other even though we're all filming the movie in this kind of episodic fashion. I think that Paul did that on purpose, that it's an ensemble movie but the ensemble doesn't really interact. I think the point he might have been trying to make with that is that in life it's that way. All of us are operating on all these kind of independent little spheres, but really we're all connected.

THC: This is your third collaboration with Paul, and because of your friendship and mutual respect, he's able to write characters for you, and other members of the cast, not just with you in mind, but knowing that you are going to play the part.

JR: Yeah, sometimes he writes screen directions, like in Magnolia, like, "we see Officer Jim Kurring. He looks a lot like John C. Reilly with a mustache."