A lot of the time, the scripts you get to read are remakes or reboots or sequels or prequels.
When it comes to scripts, I take a critical look at them and then sound it off with Dad.
I have been sent three or four scripts for television series, but there wasn’t anything I really wanted to do. I want to tell a good story, whether it’s a TV show, a movie, whatever. That’s really my No. 1 criteria.
Well, with all shows that become successful, Ive always had a gut feeling. All of the shows that Ive been involved in that have become successful Ive had this gut feeling from reading the scripts.
Some scripts you read and say, ‘I’ve just got to do this’ and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.
Making a show is such a long process. You go through a TV production house that will commission scripts, and if they like what you’ve written, they take it to a network and sell it to them. It has always felt very far away from something that’s actually real.
Writing is the life blood of everything in Hollywood. Without writers, there are no scripts, no acting work.
Personally, I read a lot of scripts.
My happiest moments are when I’m on my high wire with the Johnny Carsons of the world. I don’t have that opportunity if I’m doing other people’s scripts.
I have an idealistic approach to acting. I want to be great at it, but you can’t be great if the scripts are not there and the director doesn’t know what he’s doing.
At 14, I started reading popular scripts, wanted to learn Telugu, read books and improve my language. Then I got married at 15.
I was trained in storytelling by Jim Shooter, Stan Lee, and Larry Hama. Doesn’t make me a genius, and there really isn’t anything fancy about the stage direction in my scripts.
Dream projects are always a funny thing to label. I guess just more exciting scripts in my inbox. Maybe an exciting script about John Lennon.
When what’s around you – such as scripts, or like me being on the show and playing 18, now me doing this film playing 18 – it’s kind of been what’s been there for me.
Like any other actor, I also look for good scripts and want to portray some memorable characters on screen.
I’ve written tons of scripts, and when I wrote ‘The New Girl in Town,’ I read it to my parents, and they suggested I make a movie out of it. I got a few friends together, and I shot the movie in one weekend, and then my mom and I edited it.
I love reading different scripts and helping create different looks, different environments. Sometimes you go to meet a director over a particular script, and they’ll say, ‘I want you to do this because I want it to look like Shawshank,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not that interested in doing that again.’
The beauty with U.K. productions is that, most of the time, you get all of the scripts when you audition for them.
When you’re a working actor you see a lot of scripts all the time, but to get to do something that’s really well written it’s a rare privilege.
My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I’m in this wonderful position to be able to do that. The reason I do that is because I know what it takes once I engage, what that means for me personally and for my wife.
I’m a very moody guy and I need good scripts which excite me.
If I get good films, I would definitely do them. But most of the stuff that I get is not good at all. They were not good scripts.
Today, most big stars want scripts to be written in a particular way, show them in a certain light. They want people to like them for various reasons. It’s all about how much people will like me in this film than about whether it’s a good film or not.
‘Death In Paradise’ is my dream job – a fascinating character, great scripts, superb cast, and shooting in the Caribbean with French catering.
The wonderful thing about ‘Star Trek’ is that they’re very open to suggestions for scripts and story ideas from the viewers. That’s really unique.
Madam Chief Minister’ is one of the most exciting scripts I have read and it possessed me.
I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn’t have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.
I was looking to become more proactive with my career because I wasn’t crazy with some of the scripts I was getting – this was before Blow and Hannibal – so I decided to start my own production company.
It is a conscious choice to go for content-driven scripts because that is the key for any film to work. There are no two ways about it, and I have always been attracted to great content.
I’d read a lot of scripts, and I remember reading ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ and it was at the head of the pack. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that is really good. I would love to be a part of that.’
Hollywood is in control of politics and has imported their action-filled movie scripts into the real world.
With a sitcom, everyday you do a run through, and people are judging you, and the scripts are being changed nightly, nightly, nightly.
In 1998, the acting roles suddenly bottomed out. I was no longer getting scripts; even my agent stopped calling. When I finally got him on the phone to ask him what was going on, he paused, then said: ‘Well, Christine, you’re 45.’ I got rid of him.
There’s so many things I want to do. I want to work with great filmmakers, great actors, great scripts. And there’s no reason for me to do anything short of that, because I’m 24, I don’t have a family, I don’t need to make tons of money, and I’m not dying to get famous.
Writing is getting killed by too many chefs. Back in the Bogart days, it started with great scripts. You had a writer, and he wrote a script, and that was your movie. I think that’s been watered down a bit lately.
There are some great women’s roles in television… so much more interesting than what I was reading in film scripts.
That is what I seek, to essay interesting and challenging characters, which develop me as an actor and at a personal level to work with people who inspire me to push my boundaries and work on interesting scripts which which turn into refined work of art and leave a mark on me and the audience.
Hollywood versions of watershed moments in American history are generally high-minded shlock. ‘JFK,’ ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt,’ even ‘Lincoln’: all of these boast excellent performances in scripts that are ultimately very conventional, even conservative.
The approach I take in selecting a script is based on what I fancy from the the scripts I’m offered.
I see a lot of scripts, and very few of them leap off the page at you.
There’ve been moments where I just was tired of being in L.A. It was very difficult. I mean, you’re constantly rejected. And that’s OK, it’s just really frustrating for me, because I try to read scripts and projects that have really great, deeper, meaningful qualities to them.
It fills me with dismay sometimes when you look at the scripts that do come to you that are primarily focused on violence. There are so many other things to play around with.
The only thing that gets me back to directing is good scripts.
I don’t really look for a script and go, ‘I need to do a thriller, so I’m going to do this.’ I just read scripts and look for the best possible story.
It was easier to do Shakespeare than a lot of modern movie scripts that are so poorly written.
For all the hundreds of scripts that are out there, there’s not that many that are amazing.
You won’t find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don’t speak to me. People don’t come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I’m this dark, twisted, miserable person.
I instantly connect to certain characters and scripts.
I work like a dog, really. I go over scripts like a mad man and just want to make sure I have my house built, so that I can just kind of go nuts inside of it.
Most of the scripts that land on my desk are stuff you read and go, ‘Is someone really gonna make this?’
I find the most interesting and most daring scripts tend to be for independent films.
People recognize me, I have scripts, and auditions. And I meet great people.
If I was Leo DiCaprio or someone similarly gifted and successful I wouldn’t be writing. I’d be too busy acting in all the best scripts in town to try and write them!
To do stories that I love, scripts that I love, and work with people who are passionate about them and passionate about projects – whether that’s on stage or television or film, that’s the kind of environment I want to work in.
In major studio scripts, the girls are very similar. They’re all witty and hot. I’m more of an oddball.
I went on an audition once for a show, and the feedback was to play an angry teen. My agent convinced me to try out. I was really bitter for a while, because it sucks when you don’t get good scripts after working on good quality.
I know firsthand how much work has usually gone into a screenplay, so if there’s something that rings false or a line that I would think would need a tweak or something, I will think long and hard before I even recommend changing it. In that sense, I’m very faithful to the scripts that I get – if they’re good scripts.
