You should see me during an action film. I look like an abuse victim.
Digital has obviously changed things a lot, but not all for the better as far as I’m concerned. Of course it’s much more convenient and you’re getting instant results, but to me it just lacks the finesse of a roll of film and it has a slightly superimposed feel.
Your internal dialogue has got to be different from what you say. And, you know, in film, hopefully that registers and speaks volumes. It’s always the unspoken word and what’s happening behind someone’s eyes that makes it so rich.
The thing I do miss about the way some sequels were in the past was that each film felt like its own unique, complete tone. Now, sequels are tonal facsimiles of the ones before them, like a television series, whereas back in the past sequels would often be radically different from the ones before.
People aren’t familiar with wheelchair sports. The only film crew in Athens for the Paralympics was the documentary crew.
Film critics said I gave a voice to the fear we all have: that we’ll reach a certain point in our lives, look around and realize that all the things we said we’d do and become will never come to be – and that we’re ordinary.
I think I’m an actor. You can hire me. I can do a good job. But you also have to get lucky now and then. Every film-maker knows how hard it is to do a good film. You have to just make many, and see how lucky you get.
I hope it’s always going to be a mix between theatre, film and radio. I’ve been very lucky living in London that you can do all that – in New York and L.A., there’s more of a structure for film in L.A. and theatre in New York. In London, our industry is smaller, but it produces brilliant work all in one place.
The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.
I don’t consider any film of mine bad. I give all my films the importance they deserve. I look at all my roles with the same kind of seriousness.
When I look at ‘Fallen Angels,’ I realize it is not a film that is truly about Hong Kong. It’s more like my Hong Kong fantasy. I want Hong Kong to be quiet, with less people.
When an actor thinks he has arrived and become the best one, that’s when your downfall starts. I will always strive to do better than in my last film.
I love the quality, feel and history of film. I love the pictures of the giant cameras and the way it was.
Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.
I loved the material when I first read it, and the experience of making the film was a great one. So when we came around to complete the trilogy, I just signed on board without even reading the scripts because the experience of the first film was so good.
Once I finish shooting a film, I usually sit on it to see how we can make it better.
I love good film, whether it’s an independent or studio film. The independent films, I think the good ones aren’t necessarily eccentric ones but they’re the more specific ones.
In any art movement, the art has to move into a new phase – a filmmaker has a desire to make a film that is not like a previous film.
You do a film and you know where you’re going, you have this material to stretch and play with as much as possible because you know how it ends.
I studied Shakespeare at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, and ‘Orange’ was my first audition ever for TV or film.
My husband. He keeps me grounded. If I were in the world on my own, it would all be much more seductive. But I’m in a relationship that has nothing to do with the film world.
I’m a football player, you know? My film talks for me.
I love that feeling you get once you leave a cinema having just watched a movie during the day. Your eyes slowly adjust to the natural light, and your mind, being a little slower, takes its time to separate the images of film from the reality you are suddenly facing.
Godard is incredibly brilliant, the things he says. Apparently here in France, the most interesting thing when a new film of his is going to come out are his press conferences, because he’s so brilliant.
Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.
I have to admit, I sometimes wonder how much more successful I would have been as a coach had it not been for my spending summers on the golf course. I could have watched more film, that’s for sure. One advantage Joe Paterno had over me was that he didn’t play golf.
I wanted to play a mother again. I thought it would be interesting to play the mother of an older child. And it was also the kind of part I’ve been looking for my whole career, actually, in film. You know, just to play a femme fatale who’s very smart, and wicked.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that every time you go to make a film, you’re desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.
I had no desire to be an film actress, to always play somebody else, to be always beautiful with somebody constantly straightening out your every eyelash. It was always a big bother to me.
I was a film major because, for some reason, I thought that that was a creative job that had more job opportunities. I don’t know what logic I was following, but that was my impression at the time.
Luckily, ‘Rakta Charitra’ did well in the South and I started getting a lot offers from the Tamil and Telegu film industry.
And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it’s the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people.
I’m not looking for a challenge, necessarily. I’m looking to make a really great film.
Film is better than digital in every way. It has better contrast ratio, better blacks, and better color reproduction. It’s a more organic image, which is more the way your eyes see.
A film engages you emotionally and intellectually.
It is very tough to make a short film. It’s like writing a short story, which is tougher than writing a novel. You can’t afford to faff around; you can’t indulge. You have to get to the point.
I usually work on a film soundtrack for two years, turning in a song every few months, and that keeps my creative energy high, because I’m constantly rotating projects. The trick is to make sure I don’t work too hard and get exhausted.
You know, the reward for ‘Captain America’ is amazing. It’s always fun to see a giant spectacle film and see the fun stuff – the special effects.
For me, money has never been an indicator. And it is very sad that each and every film these days is being judged by the money that it makes. It’s a world that I don’t want to be a part of, and I try and stay away from that.
A short film is not a shortened feature film. It has a soul of its own.
Films were always a passion for me but it was when I saw ‘Salaam Bombay’ that I decided that it was film direction that I was interested in. That is when I decided I wanted to direct films.
I just won’t sing and dance in a film. But when you have a chance to star in an Abbas-Mustan film, why will anyone let it go? I have been lucky to do films which have been different from each other.
‘Mayabazar’ was the film I immensely loved as a kid. Only when I became a filmmaker about 20 years later did I realise its technical marvel and what a great epic it was. I and my visual effects supervisor, while making ‘Yamadonga,’ took two days to understand the magnification shot of Ghatothkatcha’s persona.
I think the record industry, by and large what’s left of it, is still totally homophobic. I think it’s much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it’s always been a man’s world.
‘Lakshmi’ is a dance film, a musical that deals with the emotional bond between the guru and his sishya.
I never thought I would say this, but I’m desperate to do an action film.
Film can’t just be a long line of bliss. There’s something we all like about the human struggle.
Film sets are constantly amusing because you really are creating something that is so very surreal, and I kind of like that.
I’m doing a film called ‘Black Mass’ where I play James Bulger. The reason to play him is obvious to me. He’s a fascinating character. It’s not like anything I’ve done before on that level. I’m very excited to slide into that skin for a little bit.
Watching ‘Moonlight,’ I just recognized this patience in the film – allowing moments to live and linger – and I just thought that was so beautiful.
More meaningful cinema is being made, and that is the reason why you see a rejuvenated Malayalam film industry. But more films aimed at youth are needed.
I didn’t get the degree because in my last year, for my thesis film I made a feature called Permanent Vacation and they’d given me a scholarship, the Louis B Mayer fellowship and they made a mistake.
In terms of my own film experience, I’m definitely used to morose and very heavy, heavy dramas.
One scene is enough for a good actor to leave his mark in any film.
