"There Will Be Blood." (2007)

 On this date in 2008, at the 80th Academy Awards, Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood." (2007)

Dillon Freasier (who plays H.W. Plainview, the son of the character played by Day-Lewis) was not an actor; he was an elementary student near the film's West Texas shooting location. On the radio program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," director Paul Thomas Anderson told Gross that when the production was trying to convince Dillon's mother to allow Dillon to be in the movie, his mother wanted to figure out who Day-Lewis was, so she rented a copy of "Gangs of New York" (2002) (in which Day-Lewis plays a murderous gang leader nicknamed "The Butcher"). She panicked at the idea of her son spending time with the man she saw in that movie, so the 'There Will Be Blood' casting department rushed to her a copy of "The Age of Innocence"(1993), in which Day-Lewis plays a civilized and gentle man.

Day-Lewis based his voice for and characterization of Plainview in part on old recordings of the director, writer, and actor John Huston. An article by Christopher Goodwin in the Sunday Times (of London) revealed Anderson sent Day-Lewis documentaries about Huston while Day-Lewis was preparing to play the role.

In the summer of '06, during filming, a photographer took an on-set photograph of a man the photographer believed to be Day-Lewis, albeit with a great deal of physical alterations. The photograph appeared used on various film web-sites and in magazines as an example of how drastically Day-Lewis had changed himself for the role. Upon viewing the film and applying common sense, it turns out, this person was not, in fact, Daniel Day-Lewis; rather it was actor Vince Froio, who portrayed Plainview's "closest associate" at the end of the film.

Plainview bears some resemblance to a real, early twentieth-century California oil tycoon named Edward L. Doheny. Both were from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; both were employed by Geological Survey and worked in Kansas; both tried a hand at mining before going into the oil business; and both worked with a fellow prospector named "H. B. Ailman." As for other Plainview-Doheny connections, the bowling alley scene in 'There Will Be Blood' was filmed at Greystone Manor, a California estate Doheny built as a present for his only son. Also interestingly, the infamous "milk-shake speech" Plainview gives is based on transcripts of congressive hearings concerning the Teapot Dome Scandal, in which the very same Edward L. Doheny had been accused of bribing a political official.