Alana Haim Embraces Her Inner Villain in A24's 'The Drama' — And Aims All That Energy at Zendaya
Alana Haim channels Real Housewives chaos opposite Zendaya in A24's bold new black comedy, and she's ready for every tough conversation it sparks.
Alana Haim Is Done Playing Nice
For someone who has spent years at the back of the room watching others command the spotlight, Alana Haim finally got her moment to be the villain — and she grabbed it with both bedazzled hands.
Earlier this month, the Licorice Pizza breakout star helped kick off promotion for her latest film, The Drama, in the most theatrical way imaginable: crashing a real Las Vegas wedding alongside co-star Zendaya, then taking over DJ duties at the reception. Nobody told Haim to go all out with the wardrobe. That was entirely her call.
"I fully took it upon myself," she explains. "Not only am I getting this job, I'm bedazzling this. I'm getting the sparkly fedora. I'm getting the sparkly tie."
Commenters quickly noted that she bore a striking resemblance to RHONY fan-favorite Countess Luann — a comparison Haim hadn't intended but happily embraced. "I am in my fedora-over-one-eye, Countess Luann era," she says with clear pride.
Real Housewives as Acting Inspiration
As it turns out, that same Real Housewives energy fed directly into Haim's performance in The Drama, the sharp-edged black comedy from A24, written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, the filmmaker behind Dream Scenario. It might not be the most expected influence for a musician-turned-actress who earned widespread praise for her grounded, nuanced debut in Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza, but Haim is deliberately steering into new territory.
"I'm just soaking everything up like a sponge," she says from a Hollywood studio green room, dressed in a decidedly low-key T-shirt that bears no trace of rhinestone glamour. "I'm the vessel."
What 'The Drama' Is Actually About
The Drama centers on Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), a couple on the cusp of marriage. The film's emotional core is a lengthy dinner party scene in which Emma, Charlie, and their friends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Haim) sit down over orange wine and agree to a confessional game: each person must reveal the single worst thing they have ever done.
What unfolds is uncomfortable for everyone at the table — but it is Emma's revelation, delivered last, that shatters the evening entirely. The weight of what she shares reshapes not only the dinner but the entire film, and it is Rachel who reacts most harshly and most unforgivingly.
For Haim, landing this antagonistic role felt like a long-overdue release.
"I'm the baby of the family. I didn't have any room to scream or have an opinion," she says with a laugh. "To have 34 years of bottled-up emotion — it definitely came out. Unfortunately, it came out on the sweetest person that has ever lived in Zendaya. She had to really take my wrath. But it was cathartic!"
Director Borgli confirms that Haim was the one who pursued the part. "She begged me to be Rachel and she said yes," he recalls. "She immediately clicked into the character and found her inner demons."
Building on the Legacy of 'Licorice Pizza'
Haim's work in The Drama further establishes her range as a performer, even with a still-modest filmography. Her debut in Licorice Pizza, which opened in late 2021, earned her critics' circle accolades and nominations from both BAFTA and the Golden Globes for Best Actress — a remarkable reception for a first-time film role.
"That movie changed my life and I think about it every single day," Haim says. "I'm scared that when I get married or have my first child, Licorice Pizza is always going to be at the top — because it really did open up a whole new chapter and was the greatest time of my life."
She also credits her chemistry with first-time co-star Cooper Hoffman as central to that experience. Hoffman, the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, is himself building momentum this year with roles in Luca Guadagnino's Artificial and the Olivia Wilde-fronted I Want Your Sex.
"We were partners in crime, so seeing him do all these incredible things, I'm just so happy for him," Haim says. "I want him to do 5 million movies."
A Return to the Stage — and a Brief Anderson Cameo
Rather than immediately capitalize on Licorice Pizza's momentum with another film, Haim redirected her energy back to music. With her band HAIM — which she co-fronts alongside sisters Este and Danielle — she embarked on the One More Haim tour before recording the group's latest studio album, I Quit, released in June of last year.
She was patient about choosing her next screen project. Along the way, she did shoot a small supporting role in Anderson's follow-up feature, One Battle After Another — a film that became awards season's dominant force, sweeping multiple Oscars. Haim's contribution, while brief, became something of an internet moment: a blonde bob wig memorably flew off her head during an action sequence, generating a wave of memes.
"I showed up in this cute blonde bob, and everyone was like, 'You look too good. You need to get a shittier bob,'" she recalls. "Sometimes it flew off, sometimes it didn't fly off. We would have to reset. I was literally at the wheel of this bob."
She didn't walk away with the wig, but she did get to hold one of Anderson's Oscars on the night of his historic win. "To see Paul win his first Oscars — I was a ball of emotion. I was crying the whole night," she says.
Juggling Two Films at Once
After a four-year gap from features — aside from her One Battle appearance — Haim found herself suddenly committed to two ambitious, auteur-led projects simultaneously: The Drama and Kelly Reichardt's heist period piece The Mastermind, which stars Josh O'Connor and in which Haim plays a 1970s wife and mother navigating her husband's life on the run.
Both productions overlapped in the fall of 2024, requiring Haim to shuttle between Cincinnati and Boston in a compressed stretch of back-to-back filming.
"I'm this '70s mom just trying to keep her family together, and then I go to The Drama where I'm playing a Real Housewives-esque, angry, screaming girl who's so vindictive," she says. "It was a crazy mind warp."
The Mastermind debuted at Cannes and earned strong critical notices upon its fall release.
Twenty Minutes of Dinner Table Chaos
The centerpiece of The Drama — that extended dinner table scene — was among the first things Haim tackled on set. She had a pre-existing connection to Pattinson through mutual family ties, though she had never worked with him before.
"Rob is close with my siblings, which is a sentence I've said my whole life but never thought I'd say while being in a movie with him," she notes. "During the dinner scene, he would throw something out so randomly. Witnessing him act live is insane — you're like, 'Where is he going to go?'"
Still, it was her dynamic with Zendaya that defined the scene's most electric moments. The two had never met prior to filming.
"We shot it like a play — all the way through, no breaks, off to the races — except we did a gajillion takes," Haim says. "Zendaya is one of the most incredible actresses to observe. The way she carried herself really formed the way I reacted to her. It was one of those scenes where you genuinely forgot the camera was even there."
The extended shoot had an unexpected side effect: despite consuming only grapefruit juice diluted with water in place of wine, both women started to feel the effects of sheer volume.
"When you drink that much grapefruit juice in a wine glass for that many hours, I swear to God, I was like, 'Y'all, are we drunk?'" Haim says. "By the end of the day, I was literally looking at Zendaya like, 'What the fuck?'"
Bracing for the Conversation
Haim is under no illusions about the kind of reaction The Drama is likely to provoke. She has already witnessed it firsthand.
"I saw it with some friends at an early screening and the amount of discussion that happened afterward was really something," she says. "There are going to be very hard discussions, very funny discussions, very sad discussions. It runs the gamut of emotion — and I think without this movie, a lot of people wouldn't be talking about those things. Which is exactly why you make art."
As for tracking the public response once it opens wide? She is taking a page from her years in the music industry.
"I learned very quickly that you can't look at anything, so I won't be looking at anything," she says. "But I'm happy there's going to be discussions."
What Comes Next
Haim's next confirmed project is The Heidi Fleiss Story, in which she stars opposite Aubrey Plaza. Beyond that, she is signaling a continued appetite for roles that challenge and stretch her.
"I have no ego," she says. "If I'm messing up, say 'Try it different' — I am very open to all things. If I'm bad, you can fire me. I'm down. But I haven't gotten fired yet, thank God."
