Being asked to memorise a script in one day when you have dyslexia is the same as having a broken foot and being asked to dance. You have to make exceptions for it.
The reflection of the flame in the glass seems to be touching the hand. And you feel the helpless fear of these dismembered parts. This sort of thing can hardly be visualized at the script stage.
It was pretty much the way that it was when I first read it, although one exception would be that some ideas that I had were also incorporated into the script.
A good script makes our job a lot easier.
Whenever I get a good script, I don’t care whether it’s telly or theatre or big screen – I’m not bothered.
For me, I’ve always been one that reads a script and has been ready, wiling and able to go out and fight for parts.
Jerry picked up the technique of visualizing the story as a movie scenario; and whenever he gave me a script, I would see it as a screenplay. That was the technique that Jerry used, and I just picked it up.
There’s no set rule, but when you look at the script, you start thinking about this person and how to create this human being on screen. You dig deeper into a script.
I consider my job as a screenwriter to pack a script with possibilities and ideas – to create a feast for the filmmaker to pick from.
For me, the work begins with a rough cut of the film. I can’t do much with the script. I’ve tried to write music to a script prior to seeing the film, but I’ve found it turns out to be a waste of time.
I had heard that Robert Duvall was interested in doing ‘Lonesome Dove,’ and he’s one of those actors with whom I’d work on any project. So I tracked down the script and started to bug the producer, Dyson Lovell, to get in there.
If you get a book which is 600 pages, you have to reduce it to a script of 100 pages. In two hours of film, you cannot possibly include all the characters.
I am always excited when the script or the character has something different to offer.
When the script for ‘The Wrestler’ kept coming to me I said, This movie is so good if you put me in the film as a wrestler people are going to say, ‘No credibility, Hulk Hogan isn’t a good actor,’ whatever Hollywood thinks of me.
I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that’s sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.
I was a novelist first. But in the mid-’80s, I did work in television for ten years. And yes, that was frequently the reaction to my scripts. People would say, ‘You know, George, this is great. We love it, a terrific script, but it would cost five times our budget to shoot this.’
Even when I’m reading a script where I’m supposed to be looking at the lead role, I’ll find myself gravitating toward some small weirdo in a few scenes instead. I’m very instinctive like that and I love the challenge of not having a lot of time to create someone who feels real.
No one looks at your hands to see how much they shake when you are interviewed to be a surgeon. The physical skills required are no greater than for writing cursive script. If an operation requires so much skill only a few surgeons can do it, you modify the operation to make it simpler.
I’m not accustomed to doing films without seeing the script.
If the story’s interesting and it’s a compelling script, I’d be thrilled to be a part of it.
If a script comes together, and you end up liking the people who are part of it, that’s when you can make magic happen. It’s a huge combination of trying to find something you think you can deliver on and a director you think you can collaborate with to make a good picture.
I always feel that if you put me in a room with a director and a writer and let me talk about the script, I can give a good account of myself.
I like roles of people who can overcome things because there’s strength in that and an arc – and roles where they start in one place, and toward the end of the script they end up in a completely different place, so you’ve seen this growth and some humanity in the role.
There are a lot of visual marks that have to be hit, and lines that need to be said in a right way – so there wasn’t really any improvisation on the set when it came to the bulk of the script.
You can’t make a good movie with a bad script, no matter who’s involved.
When I do a horror or a fantasy film it all boils down to something in the script that surprises me. It could be a big thing or a small moment. If it’s there I’ll do it.
I’m just a hired actor who was hired for a particular job, but I think one of the joys of reading the script was the way that the personal and the global are woven together.
On Disney, we stick to the script. But you go to the ‘Grown Ups set’ and it’s completely different. Same thing with Tyler Perry – it’s nothing but ad-libbing.
Often jobs are un-turndownable even before you read the script. You go, ‘Well, I have to do that.’
There’s something about somebody’s first screenplay: it’s like their whole life experience has kind of been bottled into it. They bring so much richness to it. And not that they won’t do that for their next script, but there is something about their first experience and the time that it’s been floating in their head.
Since when I was little, I would always write a script and tell my sister, ‘Read this line. I’m going to film it.’
When I read a script and have my first interaction with this character, do I feel like there’s something I’m gonna’ learn here? If I feel like it’s something I’ve done before, then what’s the incentive for me to do it?
Eventually, the state’s funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that.
A movie goes from several stages, from idea to script. As you continue shooting, you will make some adjustments. You’re constantly adjusting. It’s like a piece of music. You’re constantly trying to make it better.
While I don’t script and I don’t use other performers, I think my taste for underlying precision gives me something in common with Allan and George Brecht.
I like good stories. Quality products and character are what’s important. Even if the script isn’t that strong, if I challenge myself with a great character, I’ll go for it.
Sometimes I want to do something that’s really funny and other times I read an indie script that is going to be made for nothing but I want to do it because I think that I can connect with something in the story.
It just gets frustrating playing the girlfriend, It’s just this awful feeling, sitting in your house, waiting for a script to come. I like to be more proactive.
I can’t even read a script. I’ve tried and it’s painful to watch.
I think a playwright realizes after he finishes working on the script that this is only the beginning. What will happen when it moves into three dimensions?
I’ve been quite lucky in that I’ve managed to tick off a few of my dream roles, really. Beyond that, you wait for the next script to come in that will have the dream role that you don’t know exists yet, I suppose.
Three years into getting ‘The Witch’ financed, I was hanging out with my brother and he was like, ‘I’m working on this script. It’s a ghost story in a lighthouse.’ I thought, ‘Damn, that’s a really good idea, I wish I’d had it.’
I love shooting, when the character is interesting and the script is interesting, but the research beforehand is really fun. The whole process makes me anxious and restless, and I have trouble sleeping, just trying to figure out the character.
My idea of an actor is to be different persons with different roles. Every time a script interests me, I look for interesting characters because I intend to completely transport myself into it. This happens only because I am a very greedy actor. I am not part of the rat race because I am living a dream.
The best thing for me is, when I’m not working, is to be at home and to have a script or two scripts is better, and to be just walking around the house and just thinking about the lines.
When you first read a script is the purest moment. That’s when you can understand how an audience will ultimately receive it. The first reading of the script is so important because you’re experiencing it all for the first time, and it’s then that you really know if it’s going to work or not.
When I read the script sometimes, it’s like ‘Christ! Enough!’ I can’t sleep at night sometimes. There’s the occasional script that just hammers you, that you can’t shower off.
I would love to direct a western. I love taking photographs and I’m always fascinated with angles. Also, my father was a film editor, and I have a talent for thinking of things that aren’t always in a script.
Even before my audition, there were several pages missing from my script because those bits were so unbelievably secret not even I was allowed to see them.
I read a script and I know immediately whether that role is for me or not.
And I tell ya, when I sit in that sound booth and started reading the script and starting to get into the character, man, it’s an easy jump for me, because I understand what it’s all about.
I am the public, a boy from Chandigarh who’s bought tickets in black and revered films since childhood, and when I choose scripts, I take out the garb of an actor-slash-star, and I consume the script as a layman.
