This photo provided by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Joaquin Phoenix, right, as Larry "Doc" Sportello, and Katherine Waterston as Shasta Fay Hepworth in the film "Inherent Vice." Waterston knew she wanted to be in "Inherent Vice" before she'd even read the script. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Warner Bros. Pictures, Wilson Webb

TORONTO - Katherine Waterston knew she wanted to be in "Inherent Vice" before she'd even read the script.

Waterston plays Shasta Fay Hepworth alongside Joaquin Phoenix in director Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon "surf noir" novel.

As powerful a draw as Phoenix and Pynchon are, the 34-year-old Waterston couldn't pass up the chance to work with Anderson on his seventh film.

"Everybody wants to work with him. That was the initial thing." said Waterston. "There are those few directors where you really genuinely feel like, whatever they want me to do, I'm in. Do they need someone to sweep the floors? I can sweep the floors. I can be extra No. 37. Please. Sign me up."

Set in Los Angeles in 1970, "Inherent Vice" follows Doc Sportello (Phoenix), a hippy beach bum private investigator as he helps his ex-girlfriend (Waterston) find her missing billionaire boyfriend. "Inherent Vice" features an all-star cast that includes Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Reese Witherspoon and Martin Short.

"Every actor leaps at the opportunity to work with Paul. Even actors with quite a few more options than I had at the time that I got the opportunity," said Waterston. "It was so exciting when I heard as they set the cast. Every day I'd hear someone else playing another part.

"At that point I had read the novel so it was just so exciting to put a face to each character."

Anderson had not released the script when Waterston first auditioned for her role. Instead, she read the opening scene cold — when Shasta returns to Doc's beach house to ask for his help — with a casting director in New York City.

Intrigued by the many unanswered questions raised by that short reading, Waterston immediately bought the book, devouring the novel with the script in the span of a few days.

"I went out and got the book and read the script all very quickly in one weekend," said Waterston. "Talk about confused. I plowed through it. I missed so much. The more I kept exploring it the more I found."

Pynchon's novels are known for their dense, layered plotting. Waterston admires how Anderson was faithful not just to the narrative of "Inherent Vice," but the depth of Pynchon's universe.

"I'm hearing from people who've seen the film a couple of times that they have the same experience," she said. "It's almost kind of endless. The more you look into it the more you find.

"There's just so many ways that I feel that Paul honoured the novel. That's one of them. That it keeps giving, that it's so rich. I guess I just see the density as a positive and a real achievement on his part, that he got so much of the novel into the film."

Most of the scenes in "Inherent Vice" are one-on-one conversations between Phoenix's Sportello and his clients, informants or the police. That format creates quirky, but powerful scenes with Sportello piecing together several mysteries at once.

Waterston believes that these scenes play to Anderson's strengths as a director.

"Really what's so extraordinary about him is that he knows that his job is not to micromanage performers but to create an environment where they're as free as possible," said Waterston. "He's sort of setting a trap for life. And it's a good trap because you can't even see it.

"It just feels like you're playing but it's all intentional. He's there ready to catch it when you do something that seems honest."

Although their scenes in "Inherent Vice" are heavy with unspoken tension and history, Waterston said working with Phoenix was the most fun she could possibly have.

"When you have a scene partner that you know is always going to be bringing so much energy and really just creativity to the moment. To me, that's paradise," said Waterston. "I knew from the start, just from seeing his other work, that he was going to be someone I could really play with and that's just the most fun way to work."

In particular, Waterston was amazed by Phoenix's willingness to embarrass himself for the sake of his role, a necessary skill when playing the quirky but gentle Sportello.

"It's really liberating when you work with someone who's willing to make an ass of themselves," said Waterston. "And he's absolutely willing to make an ass of himself. The frustrating thing is, of course, is that he never actually makes an ass of himself. Everything he tries is so interesting and fun."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2014