The first rule of improv’ is “yes, and…” That’s what Alana Haim was trying to bear in mind while driving Bradley Cooper around in a ’70s stick shift van as it filled with smoke during the filming of Liquorice Pizza.
The movie is a coming-of-age drama from director Paul Thomas Anderson, which stars Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, and Benny Safdie.
Anderson sat Haim and Hoffman down before they started filming and played American Graffiti and informed them that they must “never break” — to “break” being film lingo for breaking character.
So, when Haim found herself driving a truck with Cooper in the passenger seat and it started malfunctioning and filling the drivers’ cabin with smoke, she took that advice and ran with it.
“So, I’m in this truck and I’m so nervous and we start driving and I don’t know what happened […] I must have done something to make a popping noise, there was a pop, but I didn’t think anything of it, and then all of a sudden from the corner of the cab in the truck it started filling with smoke,” said Haim.
Assuming that it was a test, Haim didn’t break character and carried on driving while smoke billowed in the van. Finally, Cooper turned to Haim and asked, “is that normal?”
Keeping in mind the improv rule of “yes, and…”, Haim turned back to Cooper and responded with the affirmative.
Nailed it.