My approach to making movies is different than other people, because I just write a lot of screenplays. I'm constantly writing screenplays.
— Bobcat Goldthwait
I'm not really trying to reach a big mass of an audience. My movies are done for a tiny, tiny budget, and that affords me to make them more personal.
I like writing and directing. I enjoy telling stories, and I think it's born in a comedian to end up directing.
People seem to think that I'm not aware of how people perceive me. But I'm the one that has to talk about 'Police Academy' all day long 27 years later. I'm totally aware of it.
The thing that interested me, there are so many filmmakers I admire - like David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino - they have these themes where there's not much going on, but they were suspenseful.
I'm a redneck.
In genre movies, you usually not only hate the characters, you sometimes hate them so much that you hate the actors playing them.
Every time I go to a march or a rally, and I post it on Instagram, people will go, 'I'm going to unfollow you!' And I'm like, 'I used to play arenas. I've lost a lot of fans. I'm fine with that. I've had people unfollowing me for years. You're way behind the times.'
I try not to stick to any one thing, you know. That's always been important to me.
Trust me: I entertain Joe Six-Pack 30 weekends a year. I don't really think that I'm an elitist.
Although it sounds very trite, I wish people were nice.
I think, like, in real life, I'm actually quiet, and I mumble a lot. But that's not very lucrative.
Even when I was a kid - I was really young - I was drawn to comedy.
If I ever got to do television, I would be interested in doing different kinds of characters and stories, and television doesn't lend itself to that.
The environment on the sets of the movies I make, it's usually all friends and people that know each other, because no one's getting rich or making money, so it's always about, hopefully, that everyone's on the same page.
Being shocking and cruel is a commerce. It's an actual valued skill now. The thing that really annoys me, the perception of it is that it takes intelligence, and it doesn't.
When I was at my most outrageous and destructive, I alienated almost everybody.
When I get to make a movie, I really try to make it on my own terms.
I would love to make a horror picture!
I don't really pursue acting. I jokingly say that I retired right at the same time people stopped hiring me, but I really don't think I'm very good at it, and I'm not really interested in it anymore as an adult.
I think, the first movie I saw that made me go, 'How did they do that?' was 'Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.'
At the same time most people were getting out of college, I was offered a buttload of cash to star in a movie. I don't think most students would have said no.
I'm a weird mixture of being cynical but at the same time wanting to live in a world where Bigfoot lives.
When I first started directing, I could have chosen a more lucrative path, with sitcoms and things like that. But I knew enough after the experiences I had in front of the camera that I was not going to do that, because I was just going to work on my own things or work with people I respected.
I was actually offered a talk show on CBS at one point, and I just didn't want to do it.
Marketing movies is hard.
When Will.I.Am punched Perez Hilton, I immediately purchased a bunch of their music.
The first time I was on Letterman, I was, like, 20 years old, and I was on a show called 'Camping with Barry White Night.'
Sometimes the wheels just fall off a relationship.
I really like and admire Michael Moore.
I'd still like to work with Woody Allen.
My wife and daughter both bust me on how much I am the guy yelling at kids to get off my lawn.
All I do is I have this insulated life with my wife and my daughter and a couple of friends who I try to see, but it doesn't even happen.
The movies I make, I never see them as accurately portraying a life, but more like fables.
I like stand-up. I've done it since I was a teenager, so it's kind of my first job and first kind of creative way to express myself.
My daughter and my wife inspire me to make movies.
Be it in the movies I make or on stage, I think it's a trap to keep doing the same thing over and over again.
'The Blair Witch Project' is a great movie.
I was in this hamster wheel of being famous for being famous, much like a reality star. You would put me on a talkshow, I would say outrageous things. I was just perpetuating myself as a celebrity, and I found that really empty.
I'm really not a fan of letting the audience live vicariously through stuff.
If Jimmy Kimmel didn't hire me, I wouldn't have the kind of career I have. And I don't know what kind of career I have, but he changed my life.
As long as there's a strong theme that I can identify with, that's what makes me interested in writing.
I just write the stuff that comes out of me, and then after that, I try to get it made. But I don't think, 'Will I get the money?' and 'Who's this made for?'
Occasionally I'll have a slip, and I might watch 'RuPaul's Drag Race' or something. But for the most part, I am out on the reality shows.
I always just felt more comfortable just kind of hiding behind a character than being myself onstage.
I'm always wondering, if Bigfoot's not real, then why does this creature show up in all these different cultures? I'm always fascinated by that kind of stuff.
I had a standup act, and I ended up turning it into something that was really watered down and accessible. Something that went from scary and threatening to something that was almost to the point of being corny.
I've been known to high-five, and I have a soft spot for Green Day.
If you raise a cool adult, that's an achievement.
I had fame and wealth and things that are supposed to make you happy, but I wasn't happy, because there's no importance on having a fulfilling life. So in my mid-40s, that was my pursuit - making films that interested me, films that I would like to go see.
