Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza may be a fictional coming-of-age story, but the nostalgic Hollywood film features many characters either portraying or based on real-life people. Licorice Pizza documents the misadventures, tumultuous friendship, and romance of Alana Kane, a photographer’s assistant in her mid-20s, and Gary Valentine, a 15-year-old actor, and entrepreneur. Set in the early 1970s, the Licorice Pizza true story elements are also based on the real Hollywood-set memories of director Paul Thomas Anderson and his friend Gary Goetzman.
Licorice Pizza has an unmatchable quality of realism compared to Paul Thomas Anderson’s past films, partially because of how close-to-home the cast, characters, and stories are to his real life. Alana Haim makes her film debut as leading lady Alana Kane in Licorice Pizza, but she and her family have a long history with the director. Known for forming the band HAIM with her sisters, Alana’s entire family is in Licorice Pizza, where they essentially play themselves. This is partially due to her family’s close relationship with PTA as her mother was once his teacher, and the director helmed many of their music videos. While the Haims aren’t entirely playing themselves, nor real-life Hollywood counterparts of the ‘70s, the family’s dynamic in Licorice Pizza adds to the movie's attainable realism.
Aside from the Haim family, Paul Thomas Anderson cast newcomer Cooper Hoffman as leading man Gary Valentine in Licorice Pizza, the son of PTA’s frequent collaborator, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Licorice Pizza also features small cameos from PTA’s wife, SNL's Maya Rudolph, and their children, all of whom add to the credibility of the natural, comfortable quality of the film. The only significant occasions in which Licorice Pizza breaks away from this small atmosphere are when real-life Hollywood actors and professionals are introduced with Gary and Alana. Truly contributing to the nostalgic Hollywood ambiance, many of Licorice Pizza’s characters are based on real people of this era. Here's a guide to the at least partial Licorice Pizza true story and every character based on a real person.
Gary Valentine
Licorice Pizza’s leading man Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), is based on Paul Thomas Anderson’s friend Gary Goetzman, a former child actor. Goetzman, now a well-known producer who frequently collaborates with Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, inspired almost all of the specific anecdotes within Licorice Pizza from his own teenage years. Goetzman starred in the Lucille Ball film Yours, Mine and Ours (changed to Under One Roof in Licorice Pizza) as a teenager, along with a plethora of acting credits from this time, and was a frequent hustler and businessman who owned water bed and pinball companies. One of Licorice Pizza’s most memorable scenes occurs when Gary and Alana deliver a waterbed to producer Jon Peters’ house, which is a situation that actually happened in Goetzman’s time as a waterbed salesman, though in a much less monstrous manner.
Jon Peters
Jon Peters, played by Bradley Cooper in Licorice Pizza, is a real producer and former hairdresser from the ‘70s. An interesting tidbit is that he was dating actress Barbra Streisand at the time of the film’s setting, a point that Cooper’s portrayal reiterates to Gary. Jon produced Barbra Streisand’s A Star is Born remake, which is an excellent Easter egg considering Bradley Cooper remade A Star is Born in 2018. In Licorice Pizza, Jon Peters comes into the plot when Gary and Alana deliver a waterbed to his home, an experience that the real-life Gary Goetzman had. Peters gave PTA his blessing for Bradley Cooper to portray him in Licorice Pizza, which became one of the most remarkable aspects of the film. Peters stipulated that Paul Thomas Anderson could put him in the movie as long as Cooper used his “favorite pick-up line” when flirting with women in which he asks them if they like peanut butter sandwiches. A controversial figure, the producer came into the press again around A Star Is Born (2018) when Jon Peters' sexual harassment allegations and lawsuits resurfaced.
Jack Holden
Licorice Pizza’s motorcycle-riding actor Jack Holden is based on Oscar-winning movie star William Holden. PTA told Variety that Jack Holden is a “stand-in for William Holden,” as he felt it more appropriate not to use the actor’s real name. Played by Sean Penn, Jack Holden’s Licorice Pizza character is introduced when Alana gets an audition to star opposite him in a film, and is later thrown off of his motorcycle when he performs a stunt on a golf course. Considering Licorice Pizza mentions “Jack” Holden riding a motorcycle in several films, including one with Grace Kelly, there’s no mystery that this is supposed to be Sunset Boulevard’s William Holden.
Joel Wachs
Another real-life figure whose name isn’t changed in Licorice Pizza is Joel Wachs, a politician who ran for council member in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Played by Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie in Licorice Pizza, Wachs’ role becomes significant when Alana quits Gary’s waterbed business and gets a job volunteering on Chairman Wachs’ campaign. In one of Licorice Pizza’s more somber, self-realization moments for Alana, her character is called by Wachs to a restaurant as a ploy to hide his boyfriend from the public and avoid any “distraction” from his political goals. Wachs’ sexuality would remain private until 1999, when he ran for mayor and began heavily advocating for gay rights and the arts.
Lucy Doolittle
Licorice Pizza’s Lucy Doolittle character is another example of slightly changing a real-life Hollywood actor’s name as deemed appropriate by PTA. Doolittle's role is early in the film as an actress leading Gary’s variety show Under One Roof. Anderson keeps the inspirational actress’s first name and changes the last, as Lucy Doolittle is based on none other than I Love Lucy’s Lucille Ball. Lucy’s place in Licorice Pizza connects back to Gary Goetzman’s real-life experience, as he was about the same age as Cooper Hoffman’s character when he starred in the film Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. Licorice Pizza’s Under One Roof is clearly a stand-in for 1968’s Yours, Mine and Ours.
Fred Gwynne
Another true star of the ‘60s portrayed as himself on screen, Paul Thomas Anderson’s frequent collaborator John C. Reilly cameos in a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it scene of Licorice Pizza. As Gary sets up his “Soggy Bottom” stand at the Teen-Age Fair, Licorice Pizza pans over to a booth for The Munsters’ original cast, where Fred Gwynne (Reilly) is dressed as Herman Munster and assures kids that he is, in fact, the real Herman Munster. While The Munsters was a product of the ‘60s like many other booths in the Teen-Age Fair sequence, the TV show, and Gwynne's character maintained significant pop culture presence with nostalgia, which Licorice Pizza pays perfect homage to.
B. Mitchel Reed
After Alana and Gary decide to go into business together for Fat Bernie’s Water Beds, the two schedule a live radio ad as done by B. Mitchel Reed. Licorice Pizza portrays the radio jockey as the actual B. in only about a two-minute scene. Mitchel Reed, who is played in the movie by accomplished voice actor Ray Chase. Reed was best known for his disc jockey career on Top 40 and rock stations in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, which is a perfect homage to the music culture of this era that inspired Licorice Pizza’s title.
Mary Grady
In a small but memorable scene, Licorice Pizza features a segment where Alana and Gary meet with Mary Grady, a real-life child actor agent from the ‘70s. Played by frequent PTA collaborator Harriet Samson Harris, Mary Grady was a well-known talent agent for many of Hollywood’s greatest child stars of the era. Licorice Pizza’s real-life Grady was also the mother of child actors Don Grady (The Mickey Mouse House) and Lani O’Grady.
Why Licorice Pizza Missed Out At The Oscars
Among nine other films, Licorice Pizza was nominated for Best Picture, and didn't win — but what made many audiences upset was that Alana Haim got missed entirely. Licorice Pizza was up against quite a formidable group in terms of the Best Picture Oscar. Between King Richard, allegorical disaster-comedy Don't Look Up, Belfast, and Dune, it was perhaps surprising that the indie movie got a nomination in the first place, though well-deserved. Ultimately, however, Licorice Pizza was pipped by fellow coming-of-age tale CODA for the evening's top prize.
Yet, despite this recognition, Haim's omission from the nominations list was still something of a shock. The lead singer of the band Haim, Alana Haim played Alana Kane in the movie, and did a quietly phenomenal job in the semi-autobiographical story. However, some of the more understated aspects of her performance, along with her inexperience as an actor, may have caused the Academy to snub her in favor of big names like Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Kristen Stewart (Spencer), Olivia Coleman (The Lost Daughter), Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos), and Penélope Cruz (Madres Paralelas). Jessica Chastain won the Oscar, while Licorice Pizza's Alana Haim didn't get any recognition – perhaps somewhat unfairly.