"to manage all of those egos"
To be honest, the actors you mention were part of Anderson's regular troupe of actors that Anderson had used before, so I doubt he had trouble with them, apart from maybe Cruise, who was new, and who probably is a bit of an ego, but also an artist. And being an artist, Anderson got the best work out of Cruise that he's ever given.
There's a reason for that, I think, which is that Cruise himself is part of Anderson's universe, a man who fights the battles between the freedom and individualism of ego and the community of family and religion.
Family is always at the heart of an Anderson movie: the way it effs you up when it's dysfunctional, and the way it repairs you, especially if you create your own. In fact, Anderson always brings to mind English poet Philip Larkin, who wrote, more simply, in "This be the Verse:"
"They f--k you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you."
In fact, there is a poetry and symmetry at the heart of every Anderson plot, and sometimes even a literal poet to guide us through it, as with the little rapper kid in this movie. Let's just say, if John C Reilly's cop had paid attention to the kid's rap, he would have learned a LOT lol.
Tom Cruise has never been better than in this movie, playing a typical explosive Anderson individualist, driven by disruption due to his dysfunctional family, searching for meaning and repair in all the wrong places, repeating the past. Another Anderson theme.
Sadly, Anderson and Cruise, who have so much in common thematically, will probably never work together again, on account of Anderson choosing to explore the familial dysfunction at the heart of a Scientology type religion, in "The Master."
Anderson's perpetual question is always: who is our master? Ourselves? God? Fate? Family? Love?
Anderson is genius, but an isolated one. Not a single one of his films has grossed more than $40 million domestic, or $80 million worldwide. Unlike Christopher Nolan, another genius of modern cinema who's film you review today, he has not combined his artistic inclinations with a knowledge of the genre expectations that power audiences to book tickets.
Still, when actors work with him, it's not for money, but for legacy. Like Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler also took a pay cut to work with Anderson, and also leaves behind him one of his most resonant films in "Punch Drunk Love."
I hope Anderson continues to elevate genre actors with his art, and that they continue to support him, so he can finance more films. :)
beautiful follow-up pal. As always your words resonate heavier than my own.