We’re always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.
ADAM MCKAYFor my money, I don’t think there’s been a better comedy than ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ in a lot of years. That movie just knocked me over.
More Adam McKay Quotes
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I think what’s dangerous [about comedy] is that you’re coming into the room announcing your intentions.
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I went to Temple University, and had to get loans. So I grew up in a world where I saw the government helping individuals pull themselves up, and saw it work very successfully.
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It so happens that America, according to all the polls that are out there, is pretty progressive. So you’re not going to see messages that support Ayn Randian individualism at the cost of the whole, because most people don’t agree with that.
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I don’t want to speak for my movies; you could say my movies are just completely silly and dumb, but in the case of ‘Idiocracy’ and ‘Borat,’ without a doubt there is a really subversive and sophisticated assault on American culture.
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The worst part of governing, the political side, is the grossest part, so that’s what they call it. So anything that reeks of that immediately gets tuned out by 70 percent of the population.
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I have certain beliefs about how people should treat employees and how companies should be run, but I was really surprised though this process to learn that those beliefs are actually good business.
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As for movies, what’s great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.
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For a documentary it’s so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film
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The way you really stop Al-Qaeda is by stopping their funding. It’s not by carpet-bombing or land invasions or anything.
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Can anything good come of a backward way of thinking like judging someone based on skin color? No way.
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David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He’s not only a great director, but he’s also a great writer.
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“Firewall” seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides “military” and “government?”
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The idea of 24-hour news, if you really step back, is pretty insane. Just even saying ’24-hour news’ almost has satire laced in it.
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If you make action movies, the critics will savage you, and then your movies are outdated the following week with the new wave of special effects.
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White-collar crime has been marketed – billions of dollars have been put in to have us be bored by it.
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It’s one thing to break stuff and damage people’s possessions, but when you start aiming at the ideology of America, that’s dangerous comedy.
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If all else fails, you can always be a pro.
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All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.
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Blanket cynicism toward government has always existed.
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Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.
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Blazing Saddles’ is one of the funniest movies ever made.
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Any time Chris Nolan wants to call me for advice, he can.
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Celebrities and ‘famous’ people are just regular folks. I know, it’s a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.
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Old man with an old phone. That’s never not funny.
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I think American culture had just become so disengaged from the process of government, and we’d been so fuzzed out by our pop culture around us, that I don’t think people really saw this guy for what he was.
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I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it’s there and to push it just a little bit faster.
ADAM MCKAY