Craig Nelson who is an actor and is in a show called Coach in the United States. We began to do some improvisational stuff and we used to get laughs and things.
BARRY LEVINSONYou have a movie and it proves itself and then certain things happen.
More Barry Levinson Quotes
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I never really wanted to be an actor. And that was the beginning of it, I began to write things down and eventually became a writer on a television show.
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I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.
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I would give the cameras to the kids in the swimming pools and they would play with them, and then I would collect them and we would upload it. If you’re in the process, you’re there.
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Even back in the ’90s, I shot certain things on something that wasn’t digital then, but it was on VHS with a smaller camera and we would up it to film.
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It’s always hard to explain why an audience ultimately responds to a movie.
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I got a chance to work with Mel Brooks on two of his films: Silent Movie and High Anxiety.
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I always think that there is the good and the bad of it all.
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I’ve had a lot of movies that didn’t get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.
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I’m fascinated by documentaries, to begin with. Because of the nature of television, as opposed to theatrical, documentaries can be in this long form and take you on a journey.
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Some actors are supposed to be very difficult, but I’ve not found that to be the situation.
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Ronald Reagan was this actor who was going to be president, and he was very charming. What he had was, he talked about America in ways that got people all caught up in it. He was creating this America – it could even be the mythical “America” – that we subscribe to.
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You don’t always have to have the ending, but you want to have a satisfactory conclusion.
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I think it’s a promising time which will show a lot of diversification that we’ve seen in the past.
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The interesting thing about movies, it’s not always – y’know, you have to have structure etc and all those things, but an audience responds, in many ways, we walk away and certain things stay in our heads that are memorable.
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First of all, just to get Diner made would have been an achievement in that I got a chance to direct.
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I don’t know that you can do it as a satire. I mean, the business is crazy enough as it is. It’s like doing Wag The Dog – we took a thing that was almost completely absurd on one level, and then ultimately those things came about.
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I worked at a local television station and I got a chance to direct and do all those things – worked kiddie shows, Ranger House show with the hand puppets and things like that.
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I think test screening works at its best when the audience knows what it’s getting.
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They’re intimidating the networks and levying these fines, so the networks are not sure of what they can or can’t do.
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I think certain movies work and that is part of the magic of it all. We can’t truly define why something succeeds.
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You do understand that you can’t force the situation, but in terms of how you edit, you can define that to take the audience along, whether it be a storyline or a character moment that we can play out. The more experience you’ve had, the more beneficial it is, period.
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There was a time when I said, “I’m going to go do a television thing,” after doing all these theatrical films, and heard, “Television? Why are you going to go back to television?” It’s an interesting place.
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All I try to do is create an atmosphere that seems comfortable enough, that it removes tension and everyone feels free. If they feel free then behaviour happens, small moments happen and that’s what ultimately works the best for me.
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Studios just sometimes make decisions on their own that you’re always flabbergasted by. It just happens that way for whatever reason – not even pointing fingers, it just is.
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I play around with human things, human relationships and that, and allow that kind of talk to work in that way, on that level.
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A lot of time mistakes are very interesting – you look for the behaviour that’s not the one you expect.
BARRY LEVINSON