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" I'd come into filmmaking as a painter so, for me, making 'Good Will Hunting' was experimental because I didn't know how to do it. "
Gus Van Sant
Know
Me
Good
Related Quotes:
" The biopic also wasn't a form that I necessarily believed in, because you can never really get it right, you know? It's also a form that's very popular - the straight-ahead biopic. "
Gus Van Sant
Right
Know
Get
" I was once a shameless, full-time dope fiend. "
Gus Van Sant
Shameless
Fiend
Once
" Once you're directing, you're kind of in a certain mode, where you're taking whatever is on the page and forming it into the film that you think it might want to be. So whether it's my writing or not, I still try to work with it in the same way. "
Gus Van Sant
Kind
You
Writing
" I hadn't made a big-budget film, and in Hollywood there's a sort of man and boys situation. You're a man, you make $80 million movies! As if it's harder to make an $80 million movie. Well, I guess businesswise it is because you have more executives to argue with. "
Gus Van Sant
You
Situation
Movies
" If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all. "
Gus Van Sant
Executives
Directors
Up
" I'm usually trying to react to what the actors are coming up with. And then the environment, and then the story. "
Gus Van Sant
Environment
Up
Story
" My department is to get actors to do stuff. "
Gus Van Sant
Department
Get
Stuff
" Free time keeps me going. "
Gus Van Sant
Keeps
Going
Free Time
" The media has gone through lots of things that make it a less foreign thing to have your lead character be gay. "
Gus Van Sant
Gone
Your
Character
" For all the boredom the straight life brings, it's not too bad. "
Gus Van Sant
Life
Boredom
Bad
" I think over the course of 14 films, I'm returning to a place that I know to tell a story... the same way Spielberg returned to fantasy, Lucas returned to the 'Star Wars' saga, or John Ford returned to the western. "
Gus Van Sant
Think
Way
Story
" Usually people just hire me. "
Gus Van Sant
People
Just
Hire
" I think that what I'm attracted to is people who are wild. But the self-destructive side comes out of the wild side. The wildness is very different from me. That's why I think I like it. "
Gus Van Sant
Like
Why
Think
" I don't usually direct actors in the classic sense of that word. Instead, I try to remind the characters before the shoot what's going on in a very simple way. I then watch them, their inventions as actors, approving or not approving what they're doing. "
Gus Van Sant
Classic
Doing
Simple
" If a movie isn't released, it's one thing, but if you know it will be, it's nice to have closure and see it come out. "
Gus Van Sant
See
Will
Closure
" You know, I don't think I had a concept of what I would be or do. "
Gus Van Sant
Know
Had
Concept
" Gay marriage is the last bastion of, to me... as a legal, ceremonial, sentimental and religious side, it's one of the last steps. Retaining your job being one of the earlier steps, like, not getting kicked out of your job because you're gay. "
Gus Van Sant
Gay
Marriage
You
" If you don't have the story and the unfolding of the trajectory of the saga, it's like getting in a car and not having any gas. "
Gus Van Sant
Having
Like
Car
" The reason I know about 'Tomb Raider' is from when I was researching 'Elephant.' It was 1999, and I was trying to research the Columbine-massacre kids, and they had played video games, and I, at the time, had never really seen one. It was a world I didn't know. "
Gus Van Sant
World
Research
Elephant
" Yeah, I try to be really calm. "
Gus Van Sant
Really
Try
Yeah
" There's a lot of films that have relatively rigid road maps because they have a script and others that are less rigid because they have less of a script, like 'Elephant.' The road map becomes more interpretive, maybe, than one with a detailed script. Editing-wise, they all have their problems. "
Gus Van Sant
Problems
Elephant
Map
" Usually, when I read something, I'm looking for the story first. And then, when I re-read it, I check every part of it to see whether every scene is necessary. You imagine yourself watching the movie, to see whether or not you're losing the through-line of the story. "
Gus Van Sant
Looking
Losing
Story
" My family moved a lot as a kid. We started in Colorado, where I lived for five years. We moved to Chicago for two years, to San Francisco for one year, Connecticut for seven, Oregon for a couple years, and then I went to school. "
Gus Van Sant
Kid
School
Chicago
" I've always been interested in how to present something that relates to our reality - which is not really... I don't even know if documentary itself does as good a job. It has its own problems in trying to get at the reality of the situation. "
Gus Van Sant
Own
Problems
Reality
" If I'm diagnosed with cancer I might become despondent, but someone young might not, and they might need connections with somebody outside their circle of family because their family is so despondent. "
Gus Van Sant
Need
Family
Young
" You're following your track, the story, your only plan, your map for the audience, and all the other stuff is, like, the fun stuff: the costumes, the locations, the set-dressing and the actors. They can all be variable as you like if you stick - however roughly - to the path. "
Gus Van Sant
Story
You
Fun
" Yeah, Kubrick's a big influence. In something like 'A Clockwork Orange,' he is trying to use the practical light - I mean, at least he says that in his interviews, like they're not using traditionally Hollywood lights. In 'Elephant' we basically used no lights; we never really adjusted. "
Gus Van Sant
Trying
Elephant
Influence
" I think that in some cases, I've made films that have a sentimental quality, at least as part of the film. "
Gus Van Sant
Sentimental
Think
Some
" I had wanted to do a comedy. "
Gus Van Sant
Had
Wanted
Comedy
" In high school, I read 'Silas Marner' and I was very attracted to this character - he was very rundown and he'd just stop, and things would happen around him. "
Gus Van Sant
Character
School
Stop