Through most of my career, I've made a decent living making movies no one wants to see.
Ultimately, making movies is a really, really small world. Being on sets and going to the same locations, like shooting in Shreveport, you're always working with somebody from another set that you worked with.
Making movies is about control. You need to control your narcissism in the first place, and you need to be disciplined enough to understand the reason for the film. You need to follow the agenda of the film, not a personal agenda or that of the studio. Or, worst of all, of the actors.
Playing big, heroic characters with heart is always a lot of fun. I enjoy making movies like that, and a lot of people love to live vicariously through those characters.
A friend of mine from New York asked me what I want to do, and I responded with, 'I want to make movies.' He responded with, 'Guess what? They're not making movies on Martha's Vineyard.' Literally ten minutes later, I was packing my bags.
Making movies is a very different experience in a lot of ways. It's difficult when you're used to owning the copyright and having a landlord's possessory rights - I rent my plays to the companies that do them and, if I'm upset, I can pull the play. But the only two directors I've worked with are pretty great.
I think our culture has gotten so skewed. People assume that because you're an actor you want to write a book to exploit your celebrity, but my celebrity is only a byproduct of me making movies. I have no intention of being a celebrity.
Making movies is all about compromise, negotiation, and sacrifice, but the process helps you distill what's really important to you, and once you have identified what those these things are for any particular sequence, you hold onto them and don't let them go.
When you're younger and you see something that really speaks to you, it's indelible in a way that's not the same as when you're an adult. So I'll always love reading books and making movies that resonate with young people.
Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.
The real achievement of Woody Allen was that he was making movies that felt very personal, and for a whole group of people, it spoke to them. Then he became an archetype, like Groucho Marx or Chaplin.
The downside to making movies at a gallop like we did with 'Wish You Were Here' is that we're shooting four or five scenes in a day, and it's very exhilarating, but you worry at the end of the day that you missed some details because you were moving too quick, and you just gotta trust and be ready straightaway.
I just want to go on making movies, and some of them will be completely meaningless, except, of course, to me.
I really love making movies. I just have this yearning in my stomach to go back and somehow subversively screw up television a little bit again.
I also have experience working with American producer Roger Corman who knows a lot of secrets in making movies look bigger than their budget.
I was obsessed with the idea of going to college. And I took many years off after that, so I sort of missed the weird, crazy transition that was what making movies was in the nineties to what's happening now.
I grew up loving watching movies, and at a certain point, I started to become fascinated with making movies. Then I went to film school, and I got to dabble with different aspects of moviemaking, and I ended up settling heavily into editing - editing was what I was really adept at, had a passion for.
I love making movies, but there's nothing like being in front of an audience.
Making movies is difficult and you get disorientated sometimes - even when you're working with fantastic talent.
I knew I had to get out of Boston and stop making movies there, at least for one movie, otherwise no one would ever consider me for a movie that took place south of Providence.
I started making movies in 1977, and I didn't even think about the idea that I would ever be on a television show. Once I finished the 'Guiding Light,' I was like, 'I'm done with television!'
I believe that the process could be fun, I just think that making movies is really tough. And it's stressful as it is, and I think that most of us got in this business because it's fun to make movies.
I think it's always hard to find great roles, no matter what age you are. So I always say to people, 'You have to remember that Hollywood is in the business of making movies that they can sell tickets to; they're not in the business of finding great roles for actors.'
