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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.

Barry Levinson

No one really has the power, and everybody’s trying to get through the day, and everybody’s nervous and desperate.
BARRY LEVINSON

Desperate Nervous Trying
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Actors And Television Began Eventually Thing Writing
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Documentary Fascinate Journey Long
We’re never going to be the ultimate-insider look. You can do 50 insider looks at this Hollywood business, and the satire didn’t intrigue me. I think others can do that.
BARRY LEVINSON

Business Hollywood Insider Satire Thinking
I got involved with an acting school and studied for a couple years. They used to have improv exercises that you would work on and you would do improvs.
BARRY LEVINSON

Couple Exercise School
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Crazy Dog Mean
You don’t always have to have the ending, but you want to have a satisfactory conclusion.
BARRY LEVINSON

Conclusion Satisfactory Want
I play around with human things, human relationships and that, and allow that kind of talk to work in that way, on that level.
BARRY LEVINSON

Human Human Relationships Kind Relations
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Character Moments Play
I think certain movies work and that is part of the magic of it all. We can’t truly define why something succeeds.
BARRY LEVINSON

Magic Succeed Thinking
It’s always hard to explain why an audience ultimately responds to a movie.
BARRY LEVINSON

Audience Hard Respond Ultimately
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Film Movie Number Screening Survive Time
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Charming People President
First of all, just to get Diner made would have been an achievement in that I got a chance to direct.
BARRY LEVINSON

Achievement First
I always think that there is the good and the bad of it all.
BARRY LEVINSON

All Always Bad Good Thinking
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.
BARRY LEVINSON

Film Interesting Television

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 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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Popular Authors

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