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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
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| Adrian Grenier, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Gianni Russo in James Toback's Harvard Man. |
LA is ironically and paradoxically a dangerous place to be if you make movies. Because it’s almost impossible to keep a sense of film as a representation of life and to get connected to what’s going on outside. In other words, if you’re going to make films about making films, that’s a good idea for a film. But to continue in a career in which it’s all self-reference and self-quotation or quotation from friends or enemies, it’s such a distortion of what film can and should be.
On the LA-NYC myth of moviemaking
It’s like all forms of life are moving away from the gravitational source that used to draw everything down to it. Even the stock market, you don’t have to be on Wall Street to play stocks; you don’t have to be in Las Vegas to gamble; you don’t have to be in a university to learn. And you certainly don’t have to be in New York or LA to make movies or to feel connected to movies you want to make or write about.
On the importance of being detached
I try to detach myself enough from what I’m writing that I’m just watching and listening. I’m sort of the recording secretary, recording this behavior… I’m not trying to steer them in one direction or another. It’s as though I’m witnessing the movie in my head and then writing it down as I’m seeing it and hearing it.
On smart casting
When I’m casting, [I’m looking for people] who are not just capable of improvisation, but of invention, which is a far more extreme form of on-the-spot discovery. The whole idea is to get people who are witty, funny, open, wild and free-wheeling enough that almost anything they do on their own is going to be of some inherent interest.
On the magic of the cutting room
Editing becomes the last stage of writing. It’s not just a rewrite, but a kind of last stage reinvention of the movie.
On acting for film versus the stage
On the stage, you’re stuck; it’s what it is at that moment and you’re not going to be able to redo or rethink or rewrite—it just is. Whereas with film you have this great luxury, even on the fastest shooting schedule which I, well I don’t want to say ‘unfortunately,’ but which I’ve been forced to adhere to, you have the great luxury of later on being able to take your time and work through all these riches you have and shape something original and interesting and new from it.
On sexual gratification and censorship
[In Two Girls and a Guy, the scene] when Downey was giving head to Heather Graham: I think there were originally 17 head bobs. Not that I had counted, but [the ratings board] did. She said ‘I can tell you right now you’re never going to get by with any more than two or three.’ And I said ‘Well you tell me the last time anyone got you off with two or three head bobs and I want to meet that guy!’
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