When I’m shooting, really the audience I’m thinking the hardest about is that first test screening audience who I want to like the film and that first opening weekend audience.
JAY ROACHWhen I’m shooting, really the audience I’m thinking the hardest about is that first test screening audience who I want to like the film and that first opening weekend audience.
JAY ROACHIt 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.
JAY ROACHJohn Wayne was never shy about that fervor, but because he was never overly zealous about his politics, and of course his status as a movie, he was embraced by both the right and the left.
JAY ROACHMini-Me was the pint sized clone that was the perpetuation of Dr. Evil’s own legacy [in Austin Powers]. That concept earned the sequel.
JAY ROACHThe 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.
JAY ROACHDalton Trumbo was constantly criticizing the membership [in the Communist Party], and was opposite to being a loyalist.
JAY ROACHFor 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.
JAY ROACHI 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.
JAY ROACHSometimes perfecting the one thing can be the enemy of getting any traction on anything else.
JAY ROACHI’m pretty opinionated sometimes although my political views change all the time, too. So I’m not very zealous.
JAY ROACHFrom our perspective now, there is a not a huge understanding about the totalitarian Communism that Soviet Russia practiced during the 1950s – it was an atrocious system.
JAY ROACH[Dalton] Trumbo himself was a terrible Communist.
JAY ROACH[Lyndon Baines Johnson ] technique in negotiation would be that he’d lean into you and take away your personal space, it didn’t matter your party affiliation when he was trying to convince you of something.
JAY ROACHOne 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 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.
JAY ROACHI think sequels should be earned and we won’t do it unless the script is better than the first one.
JAY ROACH