Latest Barry Levinson Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Producers - we always think, "Well, producers are very powerful," but producers don't really have the power. It's the appearance they might, but they don't. Even the actors don't. Even the studio heads don't, because they're beholden to this corporation and what the corporation wants. So no one really has the power, and everybody's trying to get through the day, and everybody's nervous and desperate.

  Barry Levinson

  Powerful, Thinking, Trying

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I don't see Sarah Palin suddenly spilling over to a wider group where suddenly they go, "Wait a minute, I've heard her message, and now I'm beginning..." It's not expanding it. A politician that doesn't expand from the base is not a good politician. So I disagree with all the talking heads that go "Well, she's a very good politician." She's not! Good politicians expand, and she doesn't.

  Barry Levinson

  Waiting, Politician, Very Good

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Ronald Reagan was this actor who was going to be president, and he was very charming. What he had was, he talked about America in ways that got people all caught up in it. He was creating this America - it could even be the mythical "America" - that we subscribe to.

  Barry Levinson

  People, President, Charming

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think when Sarah Palin opened her mouth and started talking, the more she talked, the less appealing she became.

  Barry Levinson

  Thinking, Palin

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Sarah Palin kept talking and talking, and the more she talks, the less compelling she can be. People say, "She's a very good politician, very deft at what she does," and whatever. And I hear that sometimes and go, "I don't know much about this stuff, but I would say no." Because the really good politician expands the audience, not contracts it. She may be getting a very vocal crowd, but it's a very specific group.

  Barry Levinson

  People, Sometimes, Politician

  Source: www.avclub.com

• It's such a funny thing. Hollywood is terrible unless you happen to be a celebrity who's a Republican. So Ronald Reagan can be a Hollywood celebrity, and he's a Republican, and then he can become the president, and that's okay. Fred Thomson, well, that's okay. But the rest we need to demonize. There's no consistency.

  Barry Levinson

  Consistency, President, Republican

  Source: www.avclub.com

• A lot of people have done things over the years and made fun of people in one way or another. When I was a kid, Vaughn Meader used to do John F. Kennedy. I don't know if that makes John F. Kennedy less credible. He would do the voice, he'd have some silly situations or whatever. I don't know if it made him less presidential because of it.

  Barry Levinson

  Fun, Silly, Kids

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I've had a lot of movies that didn't get great numbers on test screening, but a lot of times the film was able to survive, or the studio still stayed and supported it.

  Barry Levinson

  Film

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Studios just sometimes make decisions on their own that you're always flabbergasted by. It just happens that way for whatever reason - not even pointing fingers, it just is.

  Barry Levinson

  Decision, Sometimes, Reason

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I don't know that you can do an absurdist film and just have everybody embrace it in terms of filling out cards. I just don't think it happens. So you have to prepare an audience.

  Barry Levinson

  Thinking, Film, Embrace

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I'm emotionally invested in every movie that I do, period, because you've got to make that commitment. You're spending a year, 18 months of your life doing it. I'm invested in all those kinds of pieces. Most of the films I've had in my career have never tested well. I got lucky that sometimes I got supported by studios - or, at least if not supported, tolerated.

  Barry Levinson

  Commitment, Lucky, Kind

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Rain Man certainly didn't test really well. If you look at it carefully, you have a disease autism they didn't understand back then, they didn't know in the test audience whether it's okay to laugh or not laugh, because it's a film that's done in a way where, "Well, maybe I'm not supposed to laugh." At the end of the film, Dustin Hoffman gets on the train and doesn't even acknowledge his brother. Not even a glance, nothing. That's why the studio said, "Can't you just have him look at Tom Cruise at the end of the film?"

  Barry Levinson

  Brother, Rain, Men

  Source: www.avclub.com

• If you test Iron Man and that audience doesn't respond well, you can be damn sure that there is something wrong with the movie that you have to address. Because they're expecting a certain amount of action, right? They want a hero. There are certain things that have to be compatible with the way the audience is thinking about it. If you take some other film, like No Country for Old Men, you can end up with all kinds of crazy reactions.

  Barry Levinson

  Country, Crazy, Hero

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Different reactions while film test screening doesn't mean even the audience thinks ambiguity is a bad thing. But if you're asking them right away to start checking things off, they don't know what to do. I think at their best, it applies to when the audience knows what it is. Then, when they say, "Oh, well, I thought it was too boring in blah-blah-blah part," then you better pay attention to it. It's like going for the hamburger. Better be the good hamburger I went for.

  Barry Levinson

  Mean, Thinking, Different

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I don't know what Bruce Willis has done in real life. We know actors have certainly had tirades - that's for sure. I never had troubles with him, but the big issue is really less about what Bruce is, as opposed to - this behavior has taken place, and sometimes it came out at something that had credibility, as opposed to, "No, I want to be fat and have a beard." Other people say, "I don't give a damn about the credibility. I paid $20 million. I want to see a movie star."

  Barry Levinson

  Real, Taken, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think test screening works at its best when the audience knows what it's getting.

  Barry Levinson

  Thinking, Audience

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I thought a great line in the What Just Happened movie said, "We're just the mayonnaise."

  Barry Levinson

  Source: www.avclub.com

• We're never going to be the ultimate-insider look. You can do 50 insider looks at this Hollywood business, and the satire didn't intrigue me. I think others can do that.

  Barry Levinson

  Thinking, Satire

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Creative differences are legendary in this movie business, so we're really not exploring the creative-difference aspect as opposed to the money aspect, or the fact that something can come up in a movie and literally put the whole movie on the line, and this is where producers have to earn their keep.

  Barry Levinson

  Creative, Legendary, Producers

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I play around with human things, human relationships and that, and allow that kind of talk to work in that way, on that level.

  Barry Levinson

  Kind, Human Relations, Human Relationships

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I don't know that you can do it as a satire. I mean, the business is crazy enough as it is. It's like doing Wag The Dog - we took a thing that was almost completely absurd on one level, and then ultimately those things came about.

  Barry Levinson

  Dog, Crazy, Mean

  Source: www.avclub.com

• No one really has the power, and everybody's trying to get through the day, and everybody's nervous and desperate.

  Barry Levinson

  Trying, Nervous, Desperate

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Everybody's trying to hold onto some shred of dignity in the process of it all, and, at the same time, never talking about how they don't have the power. No one has the power. So, you know, producers - we always think, "Well, producers are very powerful," but producers don't really have the power.

  Barry Levinson

  Powerful, Thinking, Trying

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think certain movies work and that is part of the magic of it all. We can't truly define why something succeeds.

  Barry Levinson

  Thinking, Magic, Succeed

  Interview with Chris Yandek, www.cyinterview.com. March 16, 2007.

• I do know when you look at some ballplayer and all of a sudden he is the size of a truck something is wrong.

  Barry Levinson

  Looks, Size, Truck

  Interview with Chris Yandek, www.cyinterview.com. March 16, 2007.