It seems like we’ll indeed be previewing Inherent Vice one image at a time. After the slow roll-out of stills featuring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro, our first look at what we imagine will be the break-out star of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s latest has arrived. Katherine Waterston (daughter of Sam Waterston) — who is said to be “riveting every minute she’s on screen” — plays Shasta, “the free-spirited, sensual ex-girlfriend who wakes the mutton-chopped private investigator Doc Sportello (Phoenix) from his stoner haze.”
One can see the image of the actress above thanks to New York Times, who add, “Like a beacon shining through the counterculture’s druggie fog, Shasta bristles with the kind of wild-eyed, visceral energy Doc has self-medicated into oblivion: a romantic embodiment of what might have been, and what might be lost.” In other small update, the film has received an R rating for “drug use throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, language, and some violence,” which is expected territory for both Anderson and the Thomas Pynchon source material. With exactly a month to go until a New York Film Festival premiere, hopefully a trailer is around the corner, so check back.
Update: See another photo below via Rolling Stone.
Inherent Vice opens on December 12th.