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56 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTOS: (TOP) COURTESY ADAM SOMNER; (BOTTOM) PHOTOFEST; (OPPOSITE) EVERETT done before, it was right in his comfort zone," says Anderson of his 2007 oil boom drama that was shot on location on a ranch outside the high desert town of Marfa, Texas, which sport- ed no cellphone reception Since then, Somner also served as Anderson's 1st AD on The Master, Inherent Vice and Phan- tom Thread, revealing the diversity of Somner's skill set. "I dare anyone to try and keep a film set quiet. Really quiet. Really, really quiet," says An- derson about the time on The Master when he had to shoot a scene with six pages of dialogue with "three of the most intense and focused actors you could have"—Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix—and Somner worked his very specific form of mag- ic. "In the same way he'd attack a battle scene, he got everybody to be pin-drop quiet for the better part of two days. He had people in their socks, and suddenly, lights were moving like they were floating on air. I just remember thinking, 'I don't know how he's done it, but I really can't hear anything.' It was almost disconcerting." Somner's record is hard to top when it comes to working with Hollywood's top-flight directors: Besides four films with Anderson, he's worked on eight with Ridley Scott and four with his late brother Tony. Guild members who stay in theaters to watch the end credits scroll have seen Somner's name on Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, Munich and War of the Worlds, as well as six more films directed by Steven Spielberg, a man who appreciates Somner's boundless energy, eye for detail and, well, psychic qualities. "I have an unreasonable re- quirement when working with an AD, that they be the kind of person who can read my mind," Spielberg wrote in an email. "David Tomblin could. Sergio Mimica- Gezzan could. And Adam Somner could best of all." An upside of working on blue-chip productions is that everyone— from the production secretary to the boom operator to a day player— tries to honor the situation. "Usually, there's a level of respect," says Somner, adding that he still has a basic technique for dealing with a cast member who didn't get the "you're working with a legend" memo. "First of all, you try not to make it worse," he explains. "If they're late, you try to call them early. If they're not prepared, you try and get them to rehearse. You just try and navigate the person." When finding his way on a new director's set, says Somner, he relies on common sense and some nimble shape-shifting. "If there's a coarseness and a loudness, I try to inject a bit of calm. If someone's quiet, lackadaisical, I get louder, try to insert energy. If a director brings anger, I bring humor," he says. "Spirit is the most important thing on a set. I couldn't sit in a chair on a set if I tried. I move around quickly. I lead by example. If something needs to be done, I do it. And that's how I set the mood." Serving as 1st AD on Angelina Jolie's Khmer Rouge drama First They Killed My Father required setting the crew straight about who Jolie was to them: not an iconic celebrity but their boss and a filmmak- er who'd directed four previous movies. "I saw people initially want to be flirty, then get a bit like, 'What does she know?' It was the first time I saw sexism in a couple of the departments, and I became like [in a resolute voice], 'She wants this, and this is what we're doing.'" It's anyone's guess if Jolie knew that Somner's job description sud- denly included enlightening dinosaur crew members. She keenly rec- ognized, however, that he lived up to film producer Tommy Harper's recommendation —"the best of the best." "He didn't ask for an execu- tive producer credit, but he deserved one," Jolie wrote in an email in which she also recalled a hot, humid day on location in Battam- bang, Cambodia, when they filmed an emotional exodus scene that involved thousands of extras, multiple cameras spread across city blocks, and drones. "We had one shot to get it. And I looked over at Adam. He smiled. Confidence. Loves to be in the thick of it. He's the man you want next to you in a battle. A film set is no match for him." The London-born Somner was perhaps destined to end up in show business. His father, Basil Somner, was a 2nd AD in Adam's toddler years, then a film and TV production manager who rose to be the head of physical production at MGM's U.K. studios, but lost it Above, Somner confers with director Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of There Will Be Blood; left, on the set of The Wolf of Wall Street sandwiched between Martin Scorsese and DP Rodrigo Prieto; opposite, the Gladiator set in Malta, where he worked as 2nd AD to director Ridley Scott.