One of the series of decisions that the great screenwriter John McNamara made was about who to depict. [Ronald] Reagan had a role in HUAC, he was a friendly witness, but never went over-the-top about it.
JAY ROACHSometimes you fall in love with some things and then you fall out of love with it.
More Jay Roach Quotes
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[Dalton] Trumbo himself was a terrible Communist.
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There’s people who actually have a whole science devoted to what makes a sticky meme and that idea of that question of why some ideas about how civilizations work catch on and others don’t.
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It was an interesting process trying to get Bob to talk about the film because he’s such a shy person. He generally likes to talk when he really knows he has something to say.
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But I always reassure them that as far as my contractual rights can go, I will protect them and make sure that they have approval over every bit of it so that they know I won’t show something that’s embarrassing.
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[Lyndon Baines ] Johnson is a big and larger-than-life guy, we just tried to give him the dynamic range that he actually had.
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I’m developing some other things in other genres, including one dramatic piece. So, anything’s possible.
JAY ROACH -
Sometimes you fall in love with some things and then you fall out of love with it.
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[ Dalton Trumbo] always said he fought so many fights, all seemingly different, but all about the concepts of fairness and justice.
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Sometimes I would like the opportunity to do character-driven comedy and that’s really what I was trying to do in Meet The Parents. I think in a way this is a more old fashioned type of comedy.
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To his credit John Wayne was open about it, he even portrayed a member of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in a film called ‘Big Jim McClain.’
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When Dalton Trumbo and his friends joined the Communist Party it was 1943, and Russia was our ally in World War II. This was connected to a very popular movement of artists and intellectuals at that time towards anti fascism, and an alliance with the union movement.
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I really enjoy the consolation when I’m having to cut loose stuff I love, of saying ‘Well, at least it will make it onto DVD.’ There’s a couple of scenes which I liked very much, but couldn’t fit them into the film that are on there.
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In his life, [Dalton] Trumbo uses wit and comedy to fight these very high-stakes battles.
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I’m pretty opinionated sometimes although my political views change all the time, too. So I’m not very zealous.
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Once you’re a public figure, there’s a certain amount of privacy you do give up.
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The commentary track became a lot like the movie and there are some funny, long, awkward pauses that you can tell we’re just trying to find stuff to say. None of us had gotten to really talk about the movie until that moment and they were in New York and we were in L.A.
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Dalton Trumbo was constantly criticizing the membership [in the Communist Party], and was opposite to being a loyalist.
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People have an actual bias against there being some kind of popularity for political films, and when they get acknowledged, it helps keep the conversation going.
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I love Dr. Evil [from Austin Powers] as a walking, talking, narcissistic manifestation of everything screwed up about human existence – his desire to take over the world, and have the world reflect his own power lust.
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That’s why we had Louis C.K. portray the harder line Communist, to accuse [Dalton] Trumbo of being a hypocrite.
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When something so unjust as the black list happened, [Dalton Trumbo] would come to life in a certain way.
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I think sequels should be earned and we won’t do it unless the script is better than the first one.
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I’ve recently enjoyed the Paul Thomas Anderson commentaries and the David Fincher commentaries.
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I wish I was sort of someone like Woody Allen who can stage everything in one long master shot, no coverage; just, you know, that’s it.
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For Bryan [Cranston ] to go back in time and become this larger-than-life and somewhat theatrical guy, who performed his ideas and rhetoric in public in a melodic and flashy way, was a bit of a risk.
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I hope we’re all kind of influencing each other now to keep the quality up on those things. They seem to be getting better and better and better as there’s not only sort of a film geek audience, there’s also a general interest in the overall film consuming population.
JAY ROACH