Quotes by Peter Mullan

About Peter Mullan:

Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor, filmmaker and socialist. He is known for his acting roles in Trainspotting, the Harry Potter film series and My Name Is Joe, winning Best Actor Award at 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Mullan is also successful art house movie director, winning Golden Lion at 59th Venice International Film Festival for The Magdalene Sisters, listed by many critics among best films of 2003 and Golden Shell at San Sebastián International Film Festival for Neds.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I know virtually no one of my age who can remember a hug, or a smile from their father, or a 'Let's go play football.'

Peter Mullan

As a dad I'm emotionally dedicated but I'm not 'figuring out their life plans'. But of course as I'm telling them about the rights of wrongs I'm thinking back to what I was like at their age.

Peter Mullan

I guess I'm part of the art house, but we really have to shake up our ideas, because we're kind of self-parodying ourselves. We go places commercial cinema doesn't go, but sometimes it's to our own detriment.

Peter Mullan

If you go into a bank or a shop and you want them to believe that you're going to shoot them, that's an acting exercise. If you want to turn to someone else who's as tooled up as you are and persuade them to put their knife down because you'll use yo...

Peter Mullan

I find the world more absurd now than I did when I was a kid.

Peter Mullan

Part of the reason why so many actors lose the plot when they go over to America is that they become part of an industry, so that's why they don't want to play weak, bad or vulnerable guys - because that's not sellable; that diminishes their profit m...

Peter Mullan

Most actors I know come from a screwed up background, so it makes sense that if you can walk on to a space and recreate your reality, then that's the place that will become very dear.

Peter Mullan

Sometimes you have to confront your demons and sometimes even let them loose to genuinely find a place where you can gain some understanding.

Peter Mullan

In terms of popular cinema, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is as near perfection as I can think of.

Peter Mullan

I did 'Deathly Hallows' so my kids could get on the 'Harry Potter' set. They met Daniel Radcliffe, who was a darling and couldn't have been nicer to them so I'm a hero right now.

Peter Mullan

The working-class aspirations are worse now than when I was a kid - and it was pretty bad when I was a kid. Reality TV means they are being told they are no longer a working class, they're an underclass. Young lassies want to be Jordan or Jade, but v...

Peter Mullan

In bringing the subject of religious oppression to a wider audience, I didn't just want to kick the Catholic Church but to poke a finger in the throat of theocracy and to let it be known that people shouldn't tolerate this anymore.

Peter Mullan

Every film I've ever worked on, and that includes 'Braveheart' and 'Trainspotting,' I've always witnessed a director having a breakdown. Every director will have a day, without exception, where they just can't do it anymore, they don't know what to s...

Peter Mullan

A script is utterly useless in and of itself; it's only of any worth the minute your actors, your designers, your directors come into being.

Peter Mullan

The Vatican is like a huge kind of magician's club. The more you look into it the more awful it becomes. And they're laughing at us. That's when I get angry.

Peter Mullan

The films that I really enjoy now are films that are made by, for wont of a better word, mavericks.

Peter Mullan

I hate it when something is set in 1967 and every piece of furniture was made in 1967. No! If it's set in 1967, people have furniture given to them by their grandmother, which she bought in 1932!

Peter Mullan

When things are really painful, I turn it into comedy.

Peter Mullan

No hard guy's not scared when another hard guy's knife is coming at you. You're scared, obviously, but you've to act less scared than he is. It's who is going to act less scared.

Peter Mullan

I'm not a huge kind of visual director. For me, it's all about the acting. There's no greater buzz than working with actors and seeing what they can do and how much they can improve on what you'd written. That will always be on the top of my list. It...

Peter Mullan

Author Bio

  • NamePeter Mullan
  • DescriptionScottish actor and film director
  • BornNovember 2, 1959
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Actor; Screenwriter