It’s very difficult to break into motion pictures, but it’s oddly easier for directors today because of independent films and cable, who have inherited for the most part those films of substance that the studios are reluctant to finance.
So many people from the West are coming into India, all the studios have come into India, and they’re making films here, whether that’s Fox, Warner Bros, Disney, everyone. That stands as testament for us, so why are we afraid of sharing our talent with the world? We must.
We were shooting for ‘Aiyyaa’ in Yash Raj studios, and I got an offer for ‘Aurangzeb.’ That’s the only time I went for an audition.
I was offered, within one year, three different witch roles. It was almost like the world was saying – or the studios were saying – ‘We don’t know what to do with you.’
Studios will tell you that they can’t turn a profit on female-driven entertainment. Which is like the Gap saying no one is buying clothes anymore. No. No one is buying your clothes.
I always feel like there’s something magic in recording studios. There’s a reason good music continues to be made in them. It’s just some mojo element.
You have to work to be relevant. If you don’t, then people will forget, and the studios won’t want you because they won’t remember the last thing you did that made money.
I had no allusions of radio success. I just loved being in studios. I was having fun and in that sense I now feel a lot like I did when I did that record.
Studios tend to approach popular actors because they want to grab eyeballs. When it comes to the south actors, this may work because they cater to a different kind of audience, and it might make a difference there. However, in the Hindi film space, having a famous name only works in specific cases.
I just wish one of the big American studios had bought ‘Devdas.’ They would have pitched the film for the Oscars in a big way, like Miramax did with the Chinese film ‘Hero.’
I hate studios; I’ll be honest with you. People get weird in the studio. I’ve had some great and terrible times with people. People’s personalities come out in the worst way.
Audiences like to be made to feel that there is a world where things go right: where big emotions can happen and yet feel safe. This is why there is a constant tension in Hollywood between studios who want happy endings and writers who want to explore the human condition. There is a time and a place for both!
Studios might not be able to figure out my leanings, but anyone who visits my blog or reads my Twitter feed or meets me in person will realize right away that I am a huge superhero fan and a fanatic about Superman in particular.
There are two ‘Snow White’ movies coming out for the same reason that you remember back in the day there was ‘Armageddon’ and then ‘Deep Impact.’ You know, ‘Andromeda Strain’ and then ‘Outbreak.’ Like, all of those things. It’s common because basically studios have no imagination in making the decisions.
A lot of my friend’s mothers and parents worked at Paramount Studios, so I would always go. I met the Fonz when I was really young, like four or five years old. I was always around people in entertainment all the time throughout my whole life.
I went to underground music studios. In the studios, I learned that you can make a movie without a permit.
Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn’t really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists, and have a certain amount of freedom when they work, and they’re more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.
My grandmother was an actress too. In the thirties and forties she was under contract with Universal Studios. Crazy credits, lots of them. My dad was also under contract with Universal Studios. And my first film was shot on the same stage they both worked on at Universal.
In the studios days, the public’s perception of movie stars was much different, because the stars were so much less exposed. This made them seem more special, more unearthly. Today they’re no longer perceived as different – they’ve become human, so to speak.
I think the way WWE Studios is going now – they’re going away from action, doing more drama, more comedy – it will open a lot of people’s eyes. Because a lot of people see big guy, big frame: action superstar. We’ve proven, especially with ‘Legendary,’ that that is not always the case.
The investor world that looks at studios as part of media companies will say that the studio business is supposed to be erratic. Not at our company. Not at Time Warner.
Here’s the thing with the business, is that when people like your work, and you make them money, you’re set. When the critics like you, and you make the studios money, doors opened.
There are so many screenwriters with incredible stories to tell, so I hope there will be some kind of shift in the business where very few types of movies are now made by the studios. There needs to be different budgets for different audiences; not everything having to be a huge opening weekend.
The studios always had their idea of what I was, and they’d give me the dumb-blonde roles.
When I think how art education is eliminated whenever we get a budget crunch in the schools, I have to stand up and say that even when there was dire poverty ten blocks away from Tiffany Studios in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, there was art and creativity within.
Studios always seem to be in basements without natural light and with black everything.
If I have a male protagonist, it’s a studio movie, and if it’s a female protagonist, it’s an indie movie. That’s just how it is. It’s not about the studios. It’s about America and who goes to see movies. Women are interested in men and women, and men aren’t interested in the woman’s story. They just aren’t.
I know that if I went to other studios, like in Vancouver, that those are set up to be as professional and as true, so it’s just a different flavour, it’s a different sound, but I think both have their place.
I’ve never encountered homophobia in casting from the studios or networks – not once, not ever. Where you encounter it is with the agents and the managers, they’re the ones who have an outdated notion of the price an actor might pay if it’s discovered that they’re LGBTQ.
We don’t program movies. We don’t run studios. We make movies.
I made my own contacts and I recorded in different studios, and it was something that I did by myself without the assistance and help with my family at first.
The studios basically, besides developing some material, their strength is distribution. Distribution in any other business is a cost that you incur. You know, in a trucking business, you eat it. In a film business, distribution is a profit center.
I knew Chester. I’ve known Chester since 2001. I was in a band called Dry Cell, and we were signed by the same guy that signed Linkin Park, so that’s how I knew him. He would come to some of our writing sessions and rehearsals; I’d see him in the studios that we were at.
I’m interested in the kind of anti-establishment ethos that goes with making an independent movie. I like to bring that to studio films – usually to the consternation of the studios.
Big-time directors and the studios that bankroll them prefer to dwell in the comfortable, familiar center, where mammon is God and the only divine word comes from focus groups.
The actors are in control, getting outrageous amounts of money. The reason they’re getting this kind of money is because the studios don’t know what else to do. They don’t have a clue about what to do except to pay an actor a lot of money.
I use the same big studios that everybody else uses, but my attitude once inside is that of a total barbarian.
Stories come from other shows at other studios where only 2,000 rounds were actually used and the money for the other 3,000 went right into the studio pockets. Corners were cut and that production suffered. Knock wood, that hasn’t happened to us.
If you’re a young actor, unless you’re on a very short list at the studios, we have to be very creative about moving your career along. Otherwise, all we can do is hope to get lucky and find that perfect role that pops you into stardom.
It’s so important for me to do my own stunts. The sense of achievement is so immense. But the studios don’t want to take the risk.
When you think about brands and movie studios and everybody who is trying to reach millennials, having a captive audience in the back of Lyft or an Uber is a pretty great place.
If you look at Disney’s slate compared to the other Hollywood studios, it stands out because of big titles and strong franchise films which also extend beyond cinemas, to merchandising or theme parks given the legacy of the four brands – Disney, Pixar, Marvel and now Lucasfilm.
‘Bolt’ was made by Walt Disney Animation Studios, not by Pixar.
At Pixar, we believe strongly that filmmakers should develop ideas they are passionate about. This may sound like a no-brainer, but in fact in Hollywood, the big movie studios have whole departments devoted to acquiring and developing projects that will only later be paired with a director-for-hire.
The biggest obstacle when I was younger was geographical. I was living in Blackburn and the ITV and BBC studios were in London, and I thought: ‘How do I get there? I need to be there.’
I’m old fashioned. I really think you should know how to draw before you start painting. I use charcoal and graphite; I put a skylight in. In my house, I turned the garage into an art studio. So I’m awash in art studios.
