Norma Desmond: My astrologist has read my horoscope, he's read DeMille's horoscope. Joe Gillis: Has he read the script?
I don't work very much, and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.
Getting movies made is not as difficult as people think. Making movies is easy. You get a script, you get a director, you raise the money, you make the movie.
When you see a bad romantic comedy, you see the script, the director, and the actors trying to create this warmth and this pathos and this feeling that you care about them. That cannot be manufactured - it's either there or it isn't.
We really love all sports, but we don't think in the long term. The reason we did Kingpin was because there was a script we really liked and we saw the possibilities.
When we moved to L.A., I started going out for more commercials, and then one day they emailed me a movie script. The first thing I said was, 'No way. I love commercials.'
When the script was written, it was sent to me with asterisks marking where he felt a song would be appropriate. Before the film was shot, the score was written. I made a demo of it, so they lived with the music as they were making the film.
A movie goes from several stages, from idea to script. As you continue shooting, you will make some adjustments. You're constantly adjusting. It's like a piece of music. You're constantly trying to make it better.
There are all these scripts where the women, if they're working, are prostitutes and lawyers with an angry streak who'll kill you. It's a reaction to women leaving their men and men being angry about it and saying it on some subconscious level.
I often get sent scripts about little men in big situations. There's a comic element to it, which is forces stacked against this little guy, and how is he going to defeat them?
From the very start of all of this, my mom has read the scripts first. And if she liked something, she let me read it. She told our agent what kinds of parts that we would want.
I don't watch scary movies. Sometimes, even having to read the script and do an episode of 'Grimm,' I get a little tense because I know someone's going to jump out of somewhere.
It can have an enormous effect because big budget movies can have big budget perks, and small budget movies have no perks, but what is the driving force, of course, is the script, and your part in it.
Donald Kaufman: [handing Charlie his finished script] So, would you show your agent? It's called "The Three".
I'm used to changing a lot of the dialogue. But if I feel like the script is working, I don't want to mess with it.
Being a comfortable public speaker, which involves easily being able to go off-script, strongly signals competence.
When you're tied to one show, you are very much at the mercy of the writers, so you can suddenly get a script where you have a heart attack and die.
All we did in Alabama was have a read through with the script, but there was, 'No, well, it needs more. You've got to do this, Albert. You've got to do that, Jessica.' It didn't feel like that at all.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
You can tell if you're going to be into a script within the first five or ten pages - if I'm not completely engaged by page 20, I just have to give up on it.
I remember reading 'Disturbia,' one of the first scripts I ever got, and I go 'Pfft, who wants to make a movie about a guy in a house?'
