One of the key performances in "There Will Be Blood" comes from young non-actor Dillon Freasier, who plays H.W., Daniel Plainview's adopted son. Freasier turns in such an exemplary performance that you would assume you were witnessing the arrival of a great new child star. In fact, "There Will Be Blood" remains his only on-screen credit.
To be fair, this is a debut that would be hard to top. Even Paul Thomas Anderson was bowled over by Freasier's self-possession. In a Pinewood Dialogue, he said the 9-year-old Freasier would instantly pick up on the meaning of his scenes, even the ones the adults thought he would need explained to him. "[It's] just a natural gift that he has — not really as an actor, but as a person, I think. He's a young man. He's an old man trapped in a young man's body." He was also impossible to intimidate, so he wasn't afraid to take the lead and make suggestions about his own role — suggestions Anderson often took.
More than that, he was also just an asset to the set, with everyone responding to his straightforward, no-nonsense approach. Daniel Day-Lewis adored him —"I felt so protective of that wonderful young man, to the point where he'd almost be swatting me off like I was an irritating mosquito or something," he told Chicago Movie Magazine — and he wasn't the only one. In his Pinewood Dialogue with Day-Lewis, Anderson said, "The days that [Freasier] wasn't there, there was a gaping hole."
