My dad was a movie star. Having that name was good and bad. People think it’s a silver spoon. It’s not.
There are certain things in ‘Twilight’… As much as I’m proud of that movie and I do like it, I feel like maybe I brought too much of myself to the character. I feel like I really know Bella now. But most readers feel like they know Bella because it’s a first-person narrative.
When you make a 3-D movie you actually have to plan the way the visuals look because there’s a parallax issue, and there’s an issue of editing; you can’t edit very quickly in 3-D because the eye won’t adjust fast enough for it.
You can’t make an action movie without action, and so, you can’t make a romance movie without romance.
I tend to stay in character between scenes… to be rather serious on set, but here’s why, and I think people will find it surprising. I’m one of the worst ‘corpses’ on a movie set, which means you can’t keep a straight face. You start to get the giggles and you can’t stop.
If I am writing a movie and I am stuck, I can call the studio and tell them it’s delayed. You can’t do that with television – you have air dates to meet.
It’s hard to make a good movie in four weeks. It’s hard. I’ve done it, but it’s not easy.
When you do a play, or even a movie, you have weeks to finesse your character. You really understand why they do what they do. In TV, you get new material weekly about your character.
I didn’t think of ‘Thelma and Louise’ as a feminist movie.
Not to toot our own horn, but when ‘The Sopranos’ was on, it was as good as any movie that was coming out in the theater. I think that goes for a lot of shows today.
Selling a movie feels like a hustle to every bone in my body. Many actors have careers dominated by modeling. They’re all over the place. It turns me off. People who are good at what they do ought to practice something bigger.
If a movie can take you to the place that I’ve been to, and the audience can experience what I’ve experienced, then I feel – success might not be the right word, but I’m satisfied that I did my job.
A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear.
You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.
I love filming in London. In New York, every street is familiar because you have seen it in a movie. They mythologise their own city. You’re forever trying to get down streets that have been blocked off because of shooting. In London, they don’t put up with it; they’re grumpy.
I can’t remember my dreams more than a couple of seconds after I wake up. It’s frustrating because sometimes I dream that I’m watching a really good movie.
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to ‘Jurassic Park’ or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I’ve got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
If I could find the right kind of property, get tied in with the right movie, I’d love to be involved, but I just find it hard to be motivated to do another screenplay right now.
I did ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ when I was around 6 years old, but for my first movie, I was 5.
‘Deer Hunter’ is a movie; it is not an attempt to write history.
And when you look at the Turtle’s movie there is something there, definitely something there.
The way I work is, I always compose a shot list before I talk to anybody, including my DP. So I’ll spend a couple months basically creating the movie in my head, so I have a very solid film in my head, where I know every shot, and I know what the transitions between scenes are.
It was a terrible blow that was dealt when I was fired from ‘Saturday Night Live’, but I have to say that a few doors opened right away. Movie roles started to roll in, and pretty soon, I was over it.
‘Bagdad Cafe’ was a film that changed many, many people’s lives… how they saw themselves and how they looked at their life situation. I thought I made a little movie. All the mail that I get is about how it changed lives, and that’s wonderful.
I always promised myself if I ever got the chance to do a ‘Flashdance’-type of movie, I would do my own dancing. I can say with pride that every single dance move in ‘Go For It!’ is my own dance move.
It was like a dream come true for me. When you write the book, it’s still intimate. It might have been a best-seller but it’s still my story, as I wrote it. The moment we or they make a movie, it’s not my story anymore. There’s a lot of letting go involved in the process.
The Hindi film that connects with my life story the most is the movie ‘Hero’ – two brothers being lost and sort of coming back.
Naturally we need black men to give this movie serious credibility.
Film school didn’t prepare me for the fact that you have to manage so many different personalities at every stage, and I learned nothing about what to do when a movie was finished.
My attitude is one movie at a time. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Every movie you do, you find something in yourself that you probably didn’t know that you had, and a director will find something in you that you can nurture and find and bring for the next one.
‘Deep Red’ (1975) is my favorite movie. The character David Hemmings plays is very much based on my own personality. It was a very strong film, very brutal, and of course the censors were upset. It was cut by almost an hour in some countries.
My favorite anime movie is ‘Fist of the North Star’.
My deeply secret favorite movie is ‘Meet Joe Black.’
I’ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.
The most important thing when you do a movie is that you find an audience that really understands what you want to do and is really supportive of it.
I remember when I first came around, the computer-generated stuff was pretty wicked. I was like, ‘Wow!’ but I feel like then for the longest time, we saw so much of it, after a while, you might as well just be watching an animated movie.
I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.
‘Play It Again Sam’s opening shot is the same as ‘Purple Rose’s final one: a close-up of a face, rapt in a movie house. I’ve certainly felt that in my life. I’ve been known to cry watching Gene Kelly.
I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star.
Stanley Kramer? Spencer Tracy? No one turns down being in a movie with them.
I can watch a movie and go, ‘Oh, my god, that person is acting.’ If you just listen to what the other person is saying, your response will always be genuine.
I haven’t made anything I don’t believe in. I’ve always started a movie with a song in my heart, and even when I’m a little unclear about it, something magical happens and it comes into focus in a way that I’m feeling good about.
If it sells, it sells. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll go make a movie.
A naughty part of me thinks, how come Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Tim McInnerny have all done really good parts in a film, whereas I’ve only ever done bits and bobs? Before I die, wouldn’t it be nice to be the scheming old man in a movie?
You don’t have to have a true story to make a true story movie.
The next film I’m making is a horror film, and I’m making it with A24. It’s a dark break-up movie that becomes a horror film, set in Sweden. That’s all I can really say now. It’s called ‘Midsommar.’ Everybody’s been spelling it wrong. It’s ‘midsummer’ in Swedish.
Any good movie is filled with secrets.
I had a really great performance with Steven Tyler in the movie ‘Be Cool.’ I performed ‘Cryin’,’ so we recorded the song beforehand. But I didn’t get to meet him until I hit the stage with him, and we had a live performance with 30,000 people in the audience, and that was for the movie.
Instead of the cashier and ticket-ripper of the movie theater, the block chain consists of thousands of computers that can process digital tickets, money, and many other fiduciary objects in digital form. Think of thousands of robots wearing green eye shades, all checking each other’s accounting.
I was always longing to do, emotionally and physically, what my male counterparts always got to do. I just felt envious, every time I saw a movie that I was in awe of, and it was usually a male lead. And those kinds of roles weren’t available. They just weren’t being written.
The idea of it becomes a little freaky if you’re dealing with someone who has trouble differentiating between fantasy and reality, but that’s a concern no matter what kind of movie you’re dealing with.
A movie is about human beings, about humanity.
I like the feeling of making things. It’s very very rewarding. And filmmaking is that type of experience, where you’re forced to collaborate with so many people. You’re involved in the beginning to end, you’re involved with so many elements, and when it’s done, you’re like, ‘I made this movie.’
I’ve realized as well after five years of being on the road that if I’m going to four or five months of my life to something even if I’m overpaid, it’s four or five months of my life away from home, away from my son, away from family and friends. I better believe in it on some level even if it’s a big movie.
