I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.
BARRY LEVINSONI 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.
More Barry Levinson Quotes
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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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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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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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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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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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A lot of time mistakes are very interesting – you look for the behaviour that’s not the one you expect.
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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 think test screening works at its best when the audience knows what it’s getting.
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It’s always hard to explain why an audience ultimately responds to a movie.
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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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I always think that there is the good and the bad of it all.
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No one really has the power, and everybody’s trying to get through the day, and everybody’s nervous and desperate.
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I think when Sarah Palin opened her mouth and started talking, the more she talked, the less appealing she became.
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When I began to think about the head of the family, the storyteller, the rise of television which became the new storyteller, the break-up of the American family as an idea and then Avalon came.
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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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Some actors are supposed to be very difficult, but I’ve not found that to be the situation.
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You have a movie and it proves itself and then certain things happen.
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As soon as digital editing came about, I immediately made the switch to digital.
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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 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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There’s no downside to having too much experience.
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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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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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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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