writer and director paul thomas anderson specifically wrote the part of frank tj mackey in MAGNOLIA (1999) for tom cruise after tom loved PTA’s 1997 film BOOGIE NIGHTS so much he called him to congratulate him on it (which PTA has said was like getting a call from the president of the united states of movies) and invited him to visit the set of EYES WIDE SHUT in england. there they struck up a friendship and PTA promised to write tom a part in his next film. six months later tom was still shooting EWS but PTA sent him the script for MAGNOLIA and the part of mackey, a manic motivational speaker and misogynistic pick up artist with a deep well of childhood trauma and daddy issues. the role of tom’s estranged father, earl partridge played by jason robards in his final film, is a mix of both PTA’s father and tom’s — both had lost their fathers at a young age to cancer (PTA in 1997 when he was 26 and tom in 1983 when he was 21) and both of whom had complicated relationships with their fathers. like earl, PTA’s father was a television producer and the voice of the abc network for decades who put his work first. like earl, tom’ss father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned tom (and his sisters) when he was 12 and whom he saw once in the intervening years before his death upon which he allowed his children to visit him one last time. the scene in MAGNOLIA where frank confronts earl as he dies is supposed to end with frank telling earl that he won’t cry for him but PTA didn’t feel like that was enough so he asked tom to tap into his feelings over losing his father, first to abandonment and then to death, for the next take. frank’s breakdown where he sobs and rages at earl “don't go away, you fucking asshole, don't go away” over and over was improvised by tom and was so raw and moving that philip seymour hoffman, who plays earl’s nurse, said that when you see him in the background of that scene his tears are real and an actual emotional response to tom’s performance.