George Saunders is the funniest. He makes me laugh in the way I want to laugh - with so much empathy and deep understanding of people. He illuminates things and people I've never thought about - and I've dedicated my life to the study of people and their idiosyncrasies. He is light years ahead.
— Mark Duplass
The challenge for me as a parent of two girls is to establish enough structure in the house so that things don't go haywire... but at the same time, as a dominant male figure in their life, let them know they can topple the king.
I consistently go to therapy and work on this one issue. I've devoted an hour every two weeks to ask, 'How do I be a workaholic, do what we love to do, and not die of a heart attack, destroy myself and my family, and keep my friends?'
When you make a black-and-white movie with two people in it in 2016, you're taking a swing at something.
In particular, what I loved about 'Creep' and 'The One I Love' was the combination of naturalism, horror, and comedy that felt kind of new and fun.
At the risk of saying you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie: you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie.
'The One I Love' came out in theaters for the enthusiasts and did a chunk of business on VOD. But when it started streaming on Netflix, it exploded. Same thing with 'Safety Not Guaranteed.'
I would say if you have a dream - and whether that is you want to be some sort of artist, or you want to start a start-up or a business, anything that very much feels like it's uniquely yours and you may not be able to get traction going through traditional channels - the way to do it is to build it brick by brick on your own in microsteps.
I'm not someone who feels that unless I am anxious or depressed, there will be no creative drive. My greatest desire in the world is that my desperation goes away, and I can be happy.
I question every move. I'm constantly second-guessing myself.
I'm interested to see what happens to Spike Lee with limited resources, you know? I love Spike Lee's movies. But you know what? I kinda liked his movies when he used to scramble and fight more for them.
I'll do any kind of movie, as long as it's a good version of it.
I'm really excited about public libraries that are redefining themselves as free learning centers.
I never thought about branding when we were starting our production company.
You're taught - consciously or sub-consciously - to make an indie so you can get through that terrible process and get to Hollywood. I realized when I got there, 'Oh, no; I think I'm better over here.'
The only thing darker than 'Overboard' is 'Micki & Maude,' the bigamy comedy from 1984.
I think that 'Room 104' offered us an organic opportunity to tell all kinds of stories with all kinds of protagonists.
How do you say no to doughnuts?
Not all movies are movies you want to spend $14 on - and not all movies are movies you want to spend $10 on for ultra VOD, or even $6.99 on renting.
When we saw the first cut of 'Wild Wild Country,' it was like, Wow.
Obviously we know Bill Hader is funny and charming, but my question is, can he do raw humanity and naturalism? I think so.
If you're locked to the words on the script, as good as those scripted words are, if you didn't have the time to rehearse them correctly or if the perceived dynamic between the actors is different from what the writer imagined, and you're not allowed to stray from that, you're going to have a stilted scene.
'Somewhere in Time' is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. It's super melodrama.
I want 'Like Brothers' to answer young kids who ask, 'How could I possibly become a filmmaker?' This book will step that out for you.
The realm of making microbudget stuff will always be totally in our control. Most of the time, we just pay for those out of pocket. Then there is stuff that's too expensive for us to pay for, and we want partners on, like 'Togetherness' and 'Animals' and some of our original Netflix movies.
I selfishly like a lot of first-time directors because they over-prepare, they're super eager, and there's very little ego.
Nobody should be working 18 hours a day for a whole year or any period of time.
As the death of the middle class of film has happened, it has been re-birthed in television.
I played acoustic guitar so intensely, for so long - for nine hours a day as a 10-year-old, writing songs through the night, on tour constantly from when I was 19 - that I destroyed my arms and shoulders in the process.
We built a business for ourselves just out of hard work, and I think people really want to hear from us about that.
I think 'Cyrus' has a lot of fat in it. It was a $7 million movie. If you're going to make a movie with famous people, you don't necessarily need to spend 7 million dollars. Make it for less than that, and you'll be able to sell it and make a ton more than that, and everybody shares the profits.
You know, I watched the original 'Same Time, Next Year' on DVD about ten times this year, and I cried all ten times.
They're each on separate coasts but I think that the deep Maine woods shares some similarities to the Pacific Northwest.
When you're improvising, it's fun to find something that you can lean on that is similar to your life experience. In my opinion, that's very helpful.
