When asked what directors influenced him most, Paul Thomas Anderson once replied "Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme, and Jonathan Demme." Anderson's films are filled with allusions to Demme's films, in casting (the use of Demme regulars like Robert Ridgely and Jason Robards), costumes (in Punch-Drunk Love, Adam Sandler wears a blue suit like Jeff Daniels' in Something Wild), photography (see examples below), music (rock music and the use of rock musicians to compose scores), etc. In spite of these similarities, Anderson's films are distinctive and quite different from Demme's, in many other ways. Nonetheless, rumors of a collaboration have persisted since Demme first discussed the possibility in his November 1998 interview with Premiere (for more on this, see the Future/Unrealized Projects section).

In one of his two Boogie Nights audio commentaries, Paul Thomas Anderson discussed the influence of Jonathan Demme's films, on his style (for coherence, Anderson's frequent "sort ofs" and "you knows" have been omitted/reduced):

"As far as looking at shots and influences of shots and stuff and everything, I'm completely aware of all of that stuff 'cause I do watch a lot of movies and I've seen a lot of movies and I'm pretty film literate. But it's funny because people talk about Scorsese and I certainly have learned a lot and riffed off of the style that he's done and seen where he's taken it from, from Truffaut and Ophuls and people like that. But, to me, really my greatest influence style-wise is Jonathan Demme. And I remember talking to him on the phone - he's sort of my idol - and saying 'Did you see all those shots I ripped off from you?' And he said 'No.' And no one does either but I guess I do. I don't know. I somehow interpret these shots that he's done that kind of affect me in such a way that it's really the most profound influence because it strikes me in such a way that it helps me...it comes out...it vomits out of me in another way and, hopefully, I'm adding on top of what he's done, in an interesting way."

Later in the same commentary, Anderson discussed the influence of The Silence of the Lambs on his use of extreme close-ups:

"Now I can tell you the first time - I always loved close-ups in movies - the very first time where I saw a close-up that looked exactly like I wanted a close-up to look was in Silence of the Lambs. And it's in the sequence where Jame Gumb's down in the basement and you see the close-up of his nipples and applying stuff to his lips and stuff. And I loved extreme close-ups for the longest time but, for some reason, I always felt like no one's getting it exactly the way I want to see it, the way I want ot see an extreme close-up and I remember seeing Silence of the Lambs and going 'that's what they should look like. That's, for some reason, that's what that should look like. That's what an extreme close-up should look like.' "

On one of the two commentaries on the DVD for his debut, Hard Eight (aka Sydney), Anderson again discussed the photography in The Silence of the Lambs (this comes at the 36:26 mark, in the film):

"And this very subtle dimming of lights, I like to do and I kind of did a blatant rip-off from something that I saw in Silence of the Lambs. It was a scene with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins where, in the background, one of the source lights - one of the practicals - just dims the slightest bit and I'd always thought I'd seen it but then I started to think it was an optical illusion. When I listened to the audio commentary track for the Criterion version, I heard Jonathan Demme talking about it. And I was like 'Fuck, okay good, it did happen.' Cause I thought for the longest time it did happen then I thought it was an optical illusion and I've stolen it and just applied it a couple times. I did it a couple times in Boogie Nights, too. It's just the smallest, subtlest little lighting cue that dims down, you know, can mean a lot to a movie, if we wanted to talk real intellectually about it. But, boy, it's just so small and cool and you can just kinda do a small fucking stroke with it, you know. It's fun."

In August 1998, Paul Thomas Anderson discussed ten (actually 12) films that influenced Boogie Nights in the British magazine, Neon. One of the films he selected was Melvin and Howard:

"Jonathan Demme is my favorite director by far. His films to me have these rough edges, that he so perfectly creates. Things are just slightly off in certain moments, but they are perfectly modulated and he has meant to put them there. This one doesn't just hit me emotionally, in terms of latching onto the guy who just misses a break...because he's essentially a loser, but a sweetheart. But It's the first twenty minutes. All that's going on is two guys talking in a fucking car - and that's it! This to me is heaven. Then the film branches off with one of them and we watch his life unfold. It's so fucking amazing the way the movie sets you up to accept whatever happens. It's like you've just been sucker-punched. And it is so well written and so well performed. A lot of my first film, Hard Eight, is patterned after Melvin and Howard's kind of structure - I just didn't do it as well."

You can read the rest of this article at the excellent Paul Thomas Anderson site, cigarettes & coffee. This site is run by Greg Mariotti who, in a November 2000 interview with Paul Thomas Anderson, asked him about his rumored contribution to The Truth About Charlie:

MARIOTTI: Tell me about the rumors that you did a rewrite on Universal’s Charade remake for Jonathan Demme?
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON: [Scoffs] No. Not even close [Laughs]. No, Jonathan and I just have a relationship of sending things to each other. So, he’ll send me a draft of Charade and I’ll say boy, this is good, this is bad, you should try and fix this and look at that.
So, your opinion basically?
Yeah. Just swapping ideas and stuff. I did not even remotely touch a draft and Jonathan is going to eventually do Charade. A year and a half from now or something like that.