Daniel Day-Lewis is on the short list to take home the Oscar for Best Actor for his chilling performance as the hard-driving, self-made oil baron Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Dillon Freasier makes his debut as Plainview’s son, and I found out that his mom, who clearly isn’t a film buff, had some doubts about her kid co-starring with the big screen legend.

“She was a State Trooper at the time,” Lewis remembers, “and she thought she’d better check out this actor that was going to be playing Dillon’s dad. So she went and rented Gangs of New York and was absolutely appalled at the thought that she was releasing her dear child into the hands of a monster killer. There was a flurry of phone calls and finally somebody sent her a copy of The Age of Innocence and, apparently, that did the trick.”

In fact, Freasier’s mom turned out to be his fight coach when, after being treated harshly by Lewis in many scenes, he got a chance to fight back.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson reveals, “Dillon had to slap Daniel, and he didn’t want to do it initially. We kept saying, ‘You have to hit him as hard as you can. It’s OK.’ Finally his mom went, ‘You better do it, Dillon. You can do it. It’s OK!’ And he was like, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and he gave Daniel some good ones across the face.”

Fortunately, Freasier didn’t get carried away. “He’s a cowboy,” Lewis says. He’s got his rodeo belt buckles, so he’s the real thing. And he’s got big hands. He could knock out a horse with those hands. I was just hoping I’d walk away from the scene.”

Now, we’ll see if Day-Lewis walks off with that gold statue.