Top 100 Movie Work Quotes
#1. Do you know what makes a movie work? Moments. Give the audience half a dozen moments they can remember, and they'll leave the theatre happy.
Rosalind Russell
#2. I have always wanted to work in the theater. I've always felt the glamour of being backstage and that excitement, but I've never actually done it - not since I was in 5th grade, really. But I've had many plays in my films. I feel like maybe theater is a part of my movie work.
Wes Anderson
#3. I was terrified to do 'G.I. Joe.' I had no idea how to do one of those movies. I was kind of scared. You know, if one of those doesn't work, it's a huge hit on your career. People are like, 'Well he couldn't make a $170 million movie work. I don't want him in my film.'
Channing Tatum
#4. It's my responsibility to make the movie work with the schedule and money we have. It's my job to get the best movie we can do in the time we have.
George Tillman Jr.
#5. Deeds, rather than words, express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action.
Walt Disney Company
#6. In England we have this saying about Marmite: people either love it or hate it. That's like a lot of the movie work I've done. People either find it repulsive or find it really interesting and get engaged in it.
Eddie Redmayne
#7. I don't believe in leaving a scene in because it was really hard to shoot, or because it's the reason you took the movie, or because you always wanted to work with an actor ... If it's not making the movie work, get rid of it.
Barry Sonnenfeld
#8. What happens is this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody.
Ben Affleck
#9. What I think is important for a young person is to figure out how to be useful and not be so concentrated on themselves, but to see what they can do to make the overall collaboration with all the other people involved in a movie work better.
Harrison Ford
#10. I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. There are times when this distinction may be given to the writer or director. Most often it belongs to the producer.
Ben Hecht
#11. I didn't do anything for two years but work on 'Gone Baby Gone,' and it was miserable and hard, but at the end? It is a good movie. I liked it very much. If it had been dismissed and deemed worthless, it would been definitely devastating. But that didn't happen.
Ben Affleck
#12. People don't realize that doing a horror movie is hard work. You're out there all day screaming your lungs out, breathing in toxic make-up fumes, rolling around in the dirt, getting your eyebrows burned off - it's not like doing a sitcom.
Clint Howard
#13. Making a movie like 'Felony' is hard work because you're really putting your own ideas on the screen. You can't hide behind some other person's script; you're saying, 'This is my brain, and I want you to know what I think'.'
Joel Edgerton
#14. You know, making a movie is a collaborative effort and sometimes all the ingredients don't work out. I know that every now and again I am going to make a movie that won't work.
Eddie Murphy
#15. I will promise you that if I can give you two good scenes
which is what I always try to do in every movie
then I feel like I'm doing my job.
Nicolas Cage
#16. I try not to think about that [getting Oscar] ahead of time. You just try to do the best work you can, and then you get the movie out there, and we've been hearing good things. But you never know, you don't want to get too high, and you don't want to get too low.
Denzel Washington
#17. I don't want to know movie directors. I don't want to be close to them. I don't want to interfere with their work. I don't want them to interfere with mine.
Patricia Highsmith
#18. You don't make a movie by yourself; you certainly don't make a TV show by yourself. You invest people in their work. You make people feel comfortable in their jobs; you keep people talking.
Vince Gilligan
#19. I'm currently between assignments and was looking for a change. I heard there was work in Nashville and it seemed like a good place to start over. So here I am stuck in the freezing cold with a ... serial killer. Has the making for a great horror movie, huh? (Leta)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#20. Movie acting may not have a certain kind of glory as true art, but it is damn hard work.
William Holden
#21. Every movie is different. Sometimes with movies, there are roles you should just leave alone and relax with and keep it light. And there are other ones where you want to work with an acting coach and really delve in there.
Scott Speedman
#22. I'm very grateful for work especially in film industry. It's highly competitive and there are a lot of people standing behind me jumping at the opportunity to only do one thing, like one movie or one TV show or one episode.
Famke Janssen
#23. I would love to work with my sister in a movie one day - like play sisters or something like that, because we've never been on-screen at the same time together.
Elle Fanning
#24. But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can't forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn't work.
Robert Downey Jr.
#25. I'm a European, and I live there. I work in European films, and then once in a while, I make an American movie.
Monica Bellucci
#26. I wanted to be a part of the first 'Twilight' movie, and unfortunately, it didn't work out so great. So when they came back and were like, 'Do you want to come in for a part for the second movie,' I was like, 'Absolutely.'
Jamie Campbell Bower
#27. I have the soundtrack for 'A Clockwork Orange,' which is kind of cool. I guess I don't really end up buying a lot of modern soundtracks. Another soundtrack I love is from a French movie called 'Betty Blue.' it has some really melancholy piano work.
James Mercer
#28. At Pixar, after every movie we have postmortum meetings where we discuss what worked and what didn't work.
John Lasseter
#29. 'Macbeth' is one of the best operas ever, and doing it was a great experience. I added some things to the opera based from my experience on the movie - such as some of the special effects and bits of film - to make it new and interesting. It was a very good work and a very good experience.
Dario Argento
#30. Careers are built on relationships. Even if it's a bad movie, even if I know it's a bad movie, even if it's a team of filmmakers that I know are going to be difficult, that I know are going to really make me work extra hard, it's fundamentally the same process.
Christophe Beck
#31. For a movie - any movie - to work, all the bread has to fall jelly side up; everything has to go right. You have to hit the zeitgeist.
Jon Favreau
#32. In terms of the movie business, being in a 'Lord of the Rings' has given me more interesting options as work.
Viggo Mortensen
#33. When I work on a movie, I never aim for records, collections or the number one position. I always concentrate on my work and look for ways to improve my acting abilities. I also advise my co-stars not to concentrate on these pretty issues and just focus on acting.
Mahesh Babu
#34. Shooting a movie is the worst milieu for creative work ever devised by man.
Stanley Kubrick
#35. I used to think that you could get to a level of success where the laws of the universe didn't apply. But they do. It's still life on life's terms, not on movie-star terms. I still have to work at relationships. I still have to work on my weight and some of my other demons.
Chris Farley
#36. When you work on a movie, especially an independent movie, it's a lot of work to make it! It's not just our job as actors - so many people are working so hard, and even the littlest movie takes a lot of work.
Zooey Deschanel
#37. I feel like every time I take on a movie, it's important that the possibility of failure exists, and of the unknown, because it's a challenge to do something I haven't done before and something I have to try to work out.
Marc Forster
#38. 'Teen Beach Movie' was a lot of fun because we were in Puerto Rico on an island - you can't even call it work!
Ross Lynch
#39. As an actor, it's much easier for me to get work in the movies because nobody knows who I am except for the work that I've done in another movie. I really enjoy that.
Simon McBurney
#40. The thing that really makes me happy is the real work and rehearsing and creating the character and the process of making the movie. Hollywood's not real.
Penelope Cruz
#41. You don't get to know anybody in a movie until after it's over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage.
Al Pacino
#42. All films are learning processes. I am still trying to work out how you make a movie. I didn't study at film school or any of those things. I didn't bother with film theory.
Terry Gilliam
#43. When you work so hard on making a film, it's all worthwhile when you get to experience seeing that film with an audience who thoroughly enjoy it and react to the movie.
Karl Urban
#44. He's a legend and I respect his work, so I went down and paid my respects when Charlton was on the set. He was nice but I think he lied a little. He said it was an honour to be in a movie with me, but I don't believe it.
Mark Wahlberg
#45. 'Citizen Ruth' I saw when I was in college, and I really flipped out over it. I just knew I wanted to work with the person who made that movie.
Judy Greer
#46. And then to see the whole movie, you're pretty much waiting until the end of production. And the major lifting in terms of editing and all that stuff is done before you shoot the movie. That's an unusual way to work.
Charlie Kaufman
#47. These days I'm mostly familiar with two parts of L.A.: one is movie culture, and the other is Asian culture. The Westside is work, and the Eastside is Chinese - which means my friends.
Ang Lee
#48. I was a big 'Blue Valentine' fan. I really loved that movie. And I thought the performances were just unbelievably real, which is certainly what I always strive for in my work.
Dane DeHaan
#49. I think the biggest issue for legacy media - both TV and film - is that it just costs too much money to develop a TV series or movie. And most of them don't work. Then the one that works has to pay for the rest.
Shane Smith
#50. I mean, any time an actress gets to work with another actress, it's like, 'Oh, there are two of us in a movie! How are you? Let's sit in the hair chair together!' We're lonely women.
Jennifer Garner
#51. 'La Vie en Rose' is just about my favorite movie. Marion Cotillard, I'm so desperately obsessed with her work.
Max Von Essen
#52. It must have been so impossible to think about it and dare to do that, so they feel compassionate for her. I don't think the movie would work otherwise.
Diane Kruger
#53. I'm a guy that wants the movie to work. So whatever it takes or whatever you got to do - I'm happy to do.
Joel Silver
#54. I just loved Bette Davis and the fact that I had a chance to work with her [on the 1979 TV movie Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter] was momentous.
Gena Rowlands
#55. I really like to work with people who know a lot, but they also give me space so I can add something to the movie.
Vilmos Zsigmond
#56. Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters.
Arthur C. Clarke
#57. I took myself out of the business to study film at NYU and the School of Visual Arts. I grew up on movie sets and was fascinated with the camera and behind-the-scenes work. I felt it would help my career as an actor if I knew all aspects of film.
Devin Ratray
#58. I have just been working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a mum, on a movie called 'Hysteria.' She is everywhere because of the nature of film work. Not that I'm name dropping or anything like that. I have to pinch myself when I remember who I've been working with.
Ashley Jensen
#59. Time spent for temporary happiness like movie or outing or weekend on a beach is all synthetic; with shelf life of a day or two. Work for your bigger dreams that should last for whole life. Then movie and beach would seem more interesting, realising that you have done something.
Vikrmn
#60. The Hollywood image of the movie business is all about ambition and high achievers like James Cameron. But the British film industry is much more about men who wear cravats and work with model trains and hope another series of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' will be commissioned.
Peter Capaldi
#61. I love Chicago, but in a lot of ways it's a disappointment. You can work there for years and years, and because you're in Chicago, you don't get the recognition. It has some of the best theater in the country, but when they shoot a movie there, they bring in all their actors.
John Malkovich
#62. There's a real fantasy quotient to my work. Any play that I've written for myself to perform in basically begins with the idea, "Wouldn't it be fun to be, say, Jean Harlow in a pre-code movie?"
Charles Busch
#63. Even in the wicked, disgusting sweats he put on every day after work, he looked like a movie star. It isn't the kind of stuff a kid normally says about his dad, but it was true; there was just something about him, a weird kind of confidence that made everyone turn around and look.
A.M. Homes
#64. As much as I thought the end of 'Friday Night Lights' was a really great ending, I was one of those people who wanted to make it into a movie. Even though it ultimately didn't work to do that movie, I did work with some of the other writers and by myself writing a script for that.
Jason Katims
#65. My ideal day would be to get a good work out in, listen to music, talk to my family and friends on the phone, read and go to a good movie.
Steve Nash
#66. Look, it's a mainstream animated movie, and how often are those considered thought provoking? It's meant to be a great time at the theater, but it's also designed to work on more than one level.
Brad Bird
#67. No movie can claim to be a work of philosophy. They fulfill a totally different need in people.
Bruno Dumont
#69. As a jobbing actor, I never get a script and go 'I can't be bothered with this.' Life doesn't work like that. For a movie star, maybe, but for a jobbing actor, that doesn't happen.
Eve Myles
#70. I've done a lot of movies, and you really never know. You do a movie and you think that it's great, and then you see it and it doesn't work.
Benicio Del Toro
#71. Those critics awards come and go every year, but the finished movie is your work.
Scott Rudin
#72. There's a very interesting article or symposium to be written on just the real difference between comedy filmmaking and non-comedy. Because, you know, when you work in comedy, you depend on audience screenings to tell you about your movie.
Shawn Anthony Levy
#73. The theory in great families was 'why work if you don't have to.' Being a public figure was reserved for movie stars.
Jacqueline De Ribes
#74. Every movie you're going to forget that it's 3D whether it's widescreen or whatever it is, you're going to forget everything if the movie is working. If the movie doesn't work or if the movie generically doesn't work then immediately you start to pick apart whatever has contributed to that.
Steven Spielberg
#75. When you think of a movie, most people imagine a two hour finished, polished product. But to get to that two hour product, it can take hundreds or thousands of people many months of full time work.
George Kennedy
#76. Writers have it easy. If you write a bestseller or have your book made into a movie, you'll never have to work again, or so the myth goes.
Sara Sheridan
#77. When answering questions over the years about film and TV adaptations of my books, I have always maintained that no movie or TV series could ever change or damage my work.
Michel Faber
#78. I never go on a movie set as the star. I always go as the guy who just does his job, like the electrician does his job and the hairdresser does her job. Let's all work together and make this happen, rather than have the star treatment. I don't do that.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
#79. If you do good work, it tends to stick around. People still come up to me and say, 'The Ref' is my favorite Christmas movie.'
Denis Leary
#80. Every time I work on a scene or I work on the overall movie, I had my kids unconsciously in mind. Is that going to please them? Is it going to be funny for them? And if it is funny for them, is it going to be funny for their friends and their friends' friends?
Pierre Coffin
#81. A movie is just like a work of art or a book or a piece of music. The intent of its maker is one thing, but its interpretation by an audience is something else. I don't stop at what the filmmaker wanted to do.
Wesley Morris
#82. My buddies all still make fun of me about the whole 'Leprechaun' thing, and I'm proud of that movie. I'm just as proud of that work as I am of anything else that I've done. I feel like where I was in my career at the time, I committed to the character.
Laz Alonso
#83. Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn't really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists, and have a certain amount of freedom when they work, and they're more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.
Vincent Cassel
#84. If having true love and love that is expressive and free outside of work affects a project where you have to be restrained and in denial and fixed and closed off. This doesn't mean you go out and just destroy your love outside of your life and kind of mirror your movie.
Heath Ledger
#85. It's not that I'm knocking the movie and television work.
George Peppard
#86. There are two parts of me. There's the really critical, film-nerd part of me that loves that, and then there's the part of me where I'm like, "I really didn't like that movie, but I want to work with that director because he loves actors."
Anton Yelchin
#87. I'm lucky that I get to jump around, do a big-budget comedy and then a smaller film. I don't even make a big distinction between them. No one believes this, but it's the same. I'm the same person, trying to make it work. I just love being on a movie set. I like making movies.
Richard Linklater
#88. Every movie is a commitment of a year or a year and a half. Commercials are much faster than that because they're much more contained. You can get in and out really fast, and you do a piece of work the you see the end result very quickly.
Paul W. S. Anderson
#89. I'm a writer. The more I act, the more resistance I have to it. If you accept work in a movie, you accept to be entrapped for a certain part of time, but you know you're getting out. I'm also earning enough to keep my horses, buying some time to write.
Sam Shepard
#90. I usually work with the director and it's just a collaboration between me and the one person. I think you make good movies that way. If the director and the composer can have this common goal and this excitement about making something great, then you're going to do something good.
Howard Shore
#91. When we look at a painting, listen to a piece of music, read a novel, or watch a movie we are taking in the artist's composition. The composition is the totality of the work.
Mike Svob
#92. Everything about acting drives me and gives me the need to really try it. It's an evolution - doing the same thing for 12 years is kind of a chunk. Anyone would be up for a little bit of a change. It is so rewarding to do a movie, and so enjoyable. It's hard work, but really wonderful.
Agyness Deyn
#93. The movie [Chicken with Plums] is very delicate, and you need to have people around you that understand what you're doing, otherwise it doesn't work.
Vincent Paronnaud
#94. I'd done a ton of movies here in Hollywood, and I realized that every movie I'd done was somebody's else's work and someone else's vision.
Harland Williams
#95. Planet of the Apes was a gigantic challenge, making the clothes work so people could do stunts and action in the clothes. I really learned a lot about that in that movie.
Colleen Atwood
#96. I think one of the biggest things is the budget.For a studio, becomes a very big challenge to make sure that movie will work even better on every level. As an actor I don't think in those terms when I make a movie.
Famke Janssen
#97. I learned my business in the theater and in television, particularly working with the actors. You can learn much more in the theater than directing a movie, because then you have no time when you are shooting a movie to really work with the actors. You have to learn this craft somewhere else.
Michael Haneke
#98. With every movie I do and every day I go to work, my goal is not just to reach for difference, but also figure out how to look at world and characters in a different way.
Tony Scott
#99. I've done a lot of work other than sci-fi, and between half-hour comedy, stage, and various movie roles, I've really tried to avoid being typecast.
Scott Bakula
#100. Verne's all about what you can do versus what you can't do. He just kept saying yes and his part kept growing. I would love to work with him in every movie.
Mike Myers
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