Every little thing that people know about you as a person impedes your ability to achieve that kind of terrific suspension of disbelief that happens when an audience goes with an actor and character he’s playing.
I just like working with smart people.
I remember as a kid having the offer of a scholarship, that it was going to be like going to Mars, and deciding to stay in my public school.
In drama, I think, the audience is a willing participant. It’s suspending a certain kind of disbelief to try to get something out of a story.
I’m not particularly precious about the theatrical experience any more.
I’ve always liked the idea of taking old dramatic ideas and devices and making them feel relevant or contemporary or whatever.
If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I’m gonna have a heart attack.
My generation is having its midlife crisis in its 20s.
You know, independent films have been institutionalized, practically. Every studio has got a boutique arthouse label.
Young people know how to use these social networking tools, and they know how to use them effectively.
Look, you’ve got a generation of people coming along who are going to form their own new relationship with the idea of supporting the causes that they care about or changing the world. And these people are not going to do it the way our parents do it.
Making really great music, making really great films, writing great books is an antidote to all of that. And, as people, as artists, some of the massive disruption that technology is causing is so exciting, the way that people can share creativity now.
Just because you’ve made a couple movies, you’ve done some good movies, you’ve been nominated for some Academy Awards, whatever, nobody’s entitled. It’s a business. If they don’t see it, I can think they’re wrong, but I’m not entitled to a $15 million budget to make a film.
If there’s a criteria that really gets me interested in a work besides any type of personal interaction with the theme, it’s if I feel like this is the right piece of work for that director at that moment in their career.
People wrestle sometimes making movies, and I think that conflict is a very essential thing. I think a lot of very happy productions have produced a lot of very banal movies.
When you’re working on a creative thing, everyone has an idea, and they’re pushing it. The first time you work with anybody, you have to get comfortable with the way another person pushes hard for what they want.
I don’t have anything to prove to anybody, which is a lovely place to be.
People think because I went to Yale that that implies privilege, and it is a privilege in the sense that it’s an incredible opportunity.
I’m a Tulsa Jew and I have a religious upbringing.
You dream as an actor’s director of letting moments breathe through two-shots.