Quotes About Independent Movies

#1. Coming from theater, and having been to acting school, and done little, small Australian independent movies, a lot of the time, it's always about character.

Jacqueline McKenzie

#2. I've had some of the best craft services on independent movies, actually, because they get more creative, generally, with a smaller budget. The work is still the same. I didn't really notice the difference other than I was getting dressed behind a curtain, basically.

Jennifer Beals

#3. I really love the independent movies and I just think that sometimes when they throw a lot of money into it and a lot of special effects and a lot of stunts that you lose the connection, the human connection and I personally love movies that are about the human connection.

Jane Seymour

#4. My theory is, independent movies only work if you're willing to push the material and do something different.

Balthazar Getty

#5. I love the art house, and when I say the art house, I don't just mean little, independent movies but movies that really aim to be about something and say something and I love those movies.

Justin Simien

#6. It's very difficult to raise money, especially in the United States, for independent movies.

Gael Garcia Bernal

#7. Actors dread working with studios because they dictate what you do in a way that independent movies can't.

Jesse Eisenberg

#8. Now that I've established myself in a drama, I'm plugging away, trying to get the attention of people who do the independent movies and the features.

Shemar Moore

#9. Studio movies are looking more like independent movies and independent movies are looking more like studio movies, and I think cinema is better now because of it.

Mark Ruffalo

#10. I couldn't survive just doing independent movies. And I'd rather do modelling than movies or TV I didn't like.

Chloe Sevigny

#11. I crave working on those small independent movies because I love going to see those myself.

Orlando Bloom

#12. Since Star Wars, that film's success led to bigger budgets, more hardware, that the great movies like the ones I did, which were studio movies, are now independent movies. They range from half a million to several million, and a lot of those have very interesting roles.

Faye Dunaway

#13. Honestly, I guess if you looked at my CV, I've been doing independent movies since I started. I think that I kind of took a few steps back from Hollywood as soon as it all started to come my way because I wasn't quite ready for the attention.

Josh Hartnett

#14. Sometimes you find that there is better material in small and more independent movies. There's more risk-taking.

Nick Stahl

#15. You could just do independent movies, but I like bigger kind of studio movies, at least some of them.

Ray Liotta

#16. I don't want to produce anymore small or independent movies because it's just too hard these days.

John Cusack

#17. I feel like with actors wanting to direct, you really only have a shot or two. You can't just make a bunch of little independent movies, and then finally one gets noticed. You have to make a really good one right away.

Neil Patrick Harris

#18. I love making independent movies, and that's pretty much what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my years.

Milla Jovovich

#19. I didn't know there were at least as many terrible independent movies as there are big-budget ones. Like, every single year. And bad in a worse way, too. They're just parodies of themselves sometimes.

Kyle Parker

#20. I worked on three independent movies in close succession and ... I really learned from those directors how to stay on budget, make your days, get it done, keep everyone happy, which is a huge thing in a movie, and to steer the ship.

Michael Urie

#21. Sometimes the characters I find the most compelling are in independent movies. With independent scripts people can take more challenges.

Brittany Snow

#22. I like independent movies, documentaries. There's not a lot of movies that are commercially made that I dig.

Jeff Garlin

#23. I don't want to just do independent movies and I don't want to just do adventure films. I enjoy both, and I think both are cogent.

Nicolas Cage

#24. The reason I do small, independent movies is because I want to keep my soul intact and maintain some kind of integrity within this industry.

Jamie Bell

#25. I was making a lot of independent movies before the independent movement.

Jason Patric

#26. Most of my work has been independent movies outside the mainstream system.

Lenny Abrahamson

#27. I've made three musical movies which is pretty good considering that not many are made but I was lucky in other ways. I came along when independent movies were starting to boom.

Christopher Walken

#28. I've done so many independent movies I'm sure no one will ever see, but I've loved the work.

Julianna Margulies

#29. I make independent movies. I don't know how to do anything else. I don't know any other job that I could really get.

John Waters

#30. For me, to do a reality show is like sending myself to actor's graveyard. I feel like I should wait and create my own projects ... do independent movies before I would have to go and do reality shows. Or produce one and come up with one on my own!

Tamala Jones

#31. I'm from that world where I feel so comfortable making small independent movies.

M. Night Shyamalan

#32. I think independent movies are actually very challenging right now, because it was this huge scene and it was great for a few years. Then, it was totally co-opted by the studios. Now, it's become very corporate, the independent scene.

Bob Odenkirk

#33. I just feel like with independent movies ... they're really free to do whatever they want. They're not afraid to make a statement about anything, and there's not a huge studio behind them making sure that everything is wholesome and politically correct and all that.

Emma Roberts

#34. There are definitely strictly independent movies. 'Gummo' is one. Another is one I made, 'Fresh,' a $3 million movie which Boaz Yakin directed.

Lawrence Bender

#35. Like all independent movies, the first thing you're looking for is a name actor who will justify your financing.

Steven Shainberg

#36. People always ask why I don't make independent movies. I do make independent movies - I just make them at Sony and Paramount.

David Fincher

#37. In a sense I feel very much a part of the cinema now in a way where when I come back to the theater now I feel like a visitor. The cinema is really what I enjoy. I want to do more independent movies.

Brian Cox

#38. There could be great thrillers or great dramas or great comedies made in that world but everyone's afraid of it. So you have to do them as these crazy little independent movies.

George Ratliff

#39. A lot of times, mainstream critics are much tougher on small, independent movies because they can be.

John C. Reilly

#40. I used to do lots of independent films and for a while I was very content living in New York City and doing independent movies and off-Broadway theater. I loved it, I had a really good time doing that, and I worked on a lot of projects that are very dear to my heart, both plays and films.

Jared Harris

#41. I really like to work with theater actors. Theater actors tend to do lots of independent movies, and those are the actors that I like.

Jason Blum

#42. Sometimes the independent movies can get a little too arty-farty. You watch the IFC Channel and you want to throw up. You don't always have to take things so serious, you know.

Mickey Rourke

#43. The nice thing about piracy is, it allows the public to get independent art, to get a variety of music and movies.

Lloyd Kaufman

#44. Famous for his 'Maverick' Western series in the 1950s and 'The Rockford Files' in the '70s, and in movies like 'The Great Escape' and 'Grand Prix' in between, James Garner played amiable, independent characters for more than a half-century and never lost his comforting, enduring appeal.

Richard Corliss

#45. I've really enjoyed the independent film world. I've had a blast. But, the reality is that I really want to make bigger movies. If I could make movies that carry great characters and great performances and great pathos, and can have an explosion or two, that would be fine with me.

Matthew Lillard

#46. I didn't fill it up with movies every time because I was trying to just film one damn movie, but that's the heartache of independent films.

Shane West

#47. Most of my movies are indies. The best scripts I can find are independent films. But I love big-budget movies, I love craft services!

Anthony Mackie

#48. I want to continue to make beautiful movies. The most important thing is to be a part of beautiful stories, that's all I want. So I don't care if it's a Hollywood movie or an independent movie or a Spanish or American movie. I care about telling stories.

Melanie Laurent

#49. Some of the best roles are for women in these independent, smaller movies.

Kyra Sedgwick

#50. I know there's a certain love and affection for the homemade on the Internet, and I'm all for that, too, and I appreciate it in alternative music, and I appreciate it in B-movies and in Sundance, independent films.

Robert Englund

#51. My philosophy is to make movies with the biggest possible budget that will allow it to be made in an independent fashion.

M. Night Shyamalan

#52. When you work on big commercial movies, of course there's more money involved and you can still do some good work. But with an independent, you get films that are really close to the writers' and directors' heart. Somehow it becomes a little deeper. A little more meat and not as much flash.

Dennis Haysbert

#53. I'm not prejudiced about what type of movies I'm in, what form they take or whether they're studio or independent. I just want to make films that are going to be good.

Michael Pitt

#54. I've done all kinds of movies, but I wanna do some more independent films that are not your run-of-the-mill type movies like 'American Splendor', which I had a big part in, that are really trying to do something unique.

Judah Friedlander

#55. If you really spend time with movies, it's three years of your life from beginning to end. I started out planting the seed with 'Monster's Ball' about independent cinema and raising money and that whole thing as a producer, and then it becomes easier for me.

Lee Daniels

#56. Most movies suck, even the independent ones. Hollywood is like baseball: Hit three good ones out of 10 and you're a Hall of Famer.

Denis Leary

#57. The good thing about the studio is that, when the movie comes out, they will put their marketing and their money behind it, which isn't necessarily true with indie movies, just by the nature of it being an independent film.

Jamie Linden

#58. I knew nothing about the independent film industry. I didn't know much about the industry itself. All I knew was how to watch movies, how to enjoy them, how to hate them, how not to like them.

Michelle Rodriguez

#59. In the '80s, I can't say that Amy and I were aware of an independent film community. We could only get a certain amount of money for our pictures, which made them low budget movies, but they were distributed through studios.

Griffin Dunne

#60. People get together and go to the movies or on hikes, but everyone maintains their own independent domicile.

Frederick Lenz

#61. A part of me is a liberal New Yorker involved in politics and certain attitudes about movies. I kind of lost my indie credibility over 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith.' I know I haven't lost it. I just have to go make an independent movie. I just have to do it. Just for me.

Doug Liman

#62. To find a good story, you're generally going to find it in independent or lower budget movies ... I wouldn't mind doing a big budget movie if it had a great story.

Viggo Mortensen

#63. I would define independent film as a movie that is not financed by any of the smaller film companies. Because then, those are movies that in all likelihood are made without stars. And then they have to rely just on the material.

Steven Shainberg

#64. The rise of video on demand will make it possible for small movies to earn back costs via $9.95 24-hour rentals and for people in cities without independent cinemas to see the kind of movies they never have before. That's great - but on the other hand, that's TV.

David Edelstein

#65. Making movies, you're like an independent contractor - you come in, you have a specific job, and a lot of what you do is completely manipulated, which is good and bad.

Zooey Deschanel

#66. Amy Rapp, my producing partner, and I are drawn to character-driven material. We're developing and producing movies and TV, fiction and non-fiction, studio and independent, broadcast and cable, theatre, and web so our slate is really diverse.

Meredith Vieira

#67. Last year, when 'Black Swan,' 'True Grit' and 'King's Speech' all grossed over $100 million, it gave studios and independent financiers the confidence to make daring movies and not do the same old you-know-what.

Harvey Weinstein

#68. Movies, far more than the traditional arts, are tied to big money. Without a few independent critics, there's nothing between the public and the advertisers.

Pauline Kael

#69. I was still making movies so it wasnt as if I were working in a bar, but they were independent films that couldnt find distributors.

Linda Fiorentino

#70. I love indie movies. I think that independent cinema is where it's at and where a lot of trends begin. It's where new filmmakers are breaking through.

Zooey Deschanel

#71. I haven't done a lot of studio movies, but studio movies and independent films are always just as fun as each other.

Kodi Smit-McPhee

#72. They make three types of movies, and if you don't make one of those three, you have to find independent financing: It's either big-action superhero tent-pole thing, or it's an animated film, or it's an R-rated, raunchy sex comedy. They don't make movies about real people.

Rob Reiner

#73. We have a thriving subculture of 'independent' American movies that makes an impact on America as a whole roughly equivalent to that of a the modern literary novel. These are the films sincere viewers marry, whereas, once upon a time, movies were a lifetime of one night stands.

Edward Jay Epstein

#74. I think that in America there is a new movement of underground movies that wants to kick the ass of independent films that they think whine too much.

John Waters

#75. The independent-minded movies - it's always an uphill battle to get them made and seen. You do what you can, and go out there after and try to tell people about it, but at the end of the day, that's all you can do.

Ray Liotta

#76. I always went to see independent films, they're the movies I'm usually most excited to see.

Elizabeth Olsen

#77. Independent film is such a huge deal in the UK. There aren't many big budget studio movies that get greenlit at all. The indie film industy is a great opportunity that I'm trying to seize.

Aml Ameen

#78. Independent filmmakers already have their heads around people on their couches watching their movies.

Jill Soloway

#79. There are lots of great movies coming out of the U.S. but it's not something I've ever really been interested in. They're great films but I much prefer the smaller independent films, which are more thought provoking and experimental.

Billie Piper

#80. For me, the movies I like are all independent. And getting an independent feature made, it's like you get down to the selling organs part, and it just loses some of its luster.

Callie Khouri

#81. People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?
[Interview in The Independent, 15 October 2005]

Lemmy Kilmister

#82. I really don't know where the independent fits in anymore when twenty-five million dollar movies are considered straight-to-video fare. We're like penny postage stamps.

Kurt Voss

#83. I've love to do more movies. Just because I'm interested in the medium very much. I've done a lot of theatre at this point, and I've done a lot of TV. I've done a few independent films, but a lot of them have not seen the light of day. It'd be really nice to be in a film that gets out there.

Morena Baccarin

#84. The so-called 'last golden age,' in the 1970s, most of those movies were independent films.

Michael Douglas

#85. I like working in both movies and television. Television is faster, not very much rehearsal and a lot of material is shot in a day. Big budget movies are luxurious in terms of the schedule. Independent films often shoot fast as well.

Juliet Landau

#86. I sat with my toes buried in the warm yellow sand staring out towards the back door of The East. Pacific Ocean Blue was playing in the background and it had left me in a state of Bohemia as the waves crashed ashore; roaring as loud as lions.

David Louden

#87. I'm really interested in making movies that people see: I've made a lot of independent films and it's really depressing when no one sees them.

Elizabeth Banks