In this post, you will find great Scripts Quotes from famous people, such as Stephen Lang, Julia Fox, Evan Daugherty, Anna Chlumsky, Will Poulter. You can learn and implement many lessons from these quotes.
I always loved putting on shows – when you’re the youngest of seven and five are older sisters, you’ve got to get noticed somehow! I did puppet shows and magic shows… even ventriloquism. My doll‘s name was ‘Dan,’ and I used to write these scripts, and my schoolmate hid under the table and supplied Dan’s voice.
Some scripts you feel like everything is precious.
Scripts don’t get movies made.
If you are a certain kind of hands-on learner and have been in a writers room and know how scripts get made, and you know what pre-production is, then mostly it’s making sure the actors get what they need, and you are providing creative oversight while allowing room for everyone else to own the material, too.
For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts – but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.
At one point, I was greenlighting films and scripts that shouldn’t have been made based on the fact that they had that stamp of approval of an Academy Award winner. And the good news is I got to learn the real process of filmmaking – directing, storyboarding, writing.
I think I read films having grown up around the pre-production and post-production aspect of the filmmaking medium, a lot more than most young people who are in acting would have experienced. I do think about scripts in a different way. I can’t just read a script as an actor. I don’t know how to do that.
There’ve been moments where I just was tired of being in L.A. It was very difficult. I mean, you’re constantly rejected. And that’s OK, it’s just really frustrating for me, because I try to read scripts and projects that have really great, deeper, meaningful qualities to them.
The majority of scripts I get are in the comedy genre.
Am I getting better at making choices? Well, I think I might be getting better at reading scripts.
I look for good scripts, not anything. It should inspire me, and the audience should like it.
From ‘Polytechnique,’ I started to get scripts and after ‘Incendies,’ of course, it exploded.
Writing is a hard gig, and it’s hard to convey a lot. That’s why scripts tend to be a little bit overwritten.
I’ve been doing this for seven and a half years. I’ve been just bustin’ it, trying to break in as an artist in this business. For me, it’s still just about the work. I get the scripts and I’m all about that. I don’t really even have an idea what that’s going to be like.
A lot of things I have turned down ended up being a big embarrassment. Like that script, ‘The Beaver.’ I thought that was one of the worst scripts I had ever read. But everyone said, ‘Ooh it’s on the Black List.’ Yeah, well, good for it. They’re a bunch of idiots. I saw the final film, and there were no surprises.
Anytime I’m given scripts where I’m sort of the fantasy girl, it’s hard for me because that’s not real and I don’t think it’s a great thing to put out there consistently.
Films work due to scripts, characters, and what you see on screen.
I always get scared. I can’t read scripts. I’m scared, scary movies and stuff.
When you have the top show your scripts have to be more than competitive. They should be the best.
If I was Leo DiCaprio or someone similarly gifted and successful I wouldn’t be writing. I’d be too busy acting in all the best scripts in town to try and write them!
A lot of the time, the scripts you get to read are remakes or reboots or sequels or prequels.
I’d always envied actors who got to play real people or got to do research. I’ve always just had these scripts where, I mean not in a bad way, but it was right on the page.
It’s a weird thing when you spend your life trying to find these great scripts and great parts. You are reading scripts, you are traveling the world, you are hassling your agent. You are trying to find that script.
Whenever I get any of the ‘Game of Thrones’ scripts, it’s always like, ‘oh my God, how am I going to do this?’ It’s a sort of performance anxiety about being able to do a good job.
Writing is the life blood of everything in Hollywood. Without writers, there are no scripts, no acting work.
It’s very rare to have rehearsal time on a television show: You get scripts, you show up, and you do it.
If I were actually Homer Simpson, I’d be getting scripts out the wazoo.
Whether it is the cavemen in the caves thousands of years ago, Shakespeare plays, television, movies and books, stories and characters take us on a journey. All I do is tell those stories without scripts and without actors.
A lot of actors look at scripts and think, ‘How will this stretch me as an actor?’ But I always thought, ‘Do I want to turn the page? Is this going to make people laugh?’
I learned how to write television scripts the same way I have learned to do almost everything else in my entire life, which is by reading.
You won’t find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don’t speak to me. People don’t come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I’m this dark, twisted, miserable person.
In school, I used to write scripts and all that good stuff.
When what’s around you – such as scripts, or like me being on the show and playing 18, now me doing this film playing 18 – it’s kind of been what’s been there for me.
I know what it is like to fear violence. I understand the adrenalin rush that comes before violent confrontations. I write my scripts from an emotional point of view and direct so the audience can experience this adrenalin rush.
I’m terrible at reading scripts. I love to read, and I hate reading scripts.
My screenwriting credits in my career are probably not dissimilar to some other ones in the sense that a lot of the scripts you write don’t get made, and the ones that do get made are certainly – as a writer, they’re not your vision.
I write plays instinctively. I don’t like writing movie scripts.
I fix things now and then, more often tweak HTML and make scripts to do things.
Audiences want to watch heroine-oriented films, and even writers are writing scripts for women. I am very happy to see this change.
I’ve never gotten hired for drama because I’m a good improviser. I don’t think people who write drama scripts want you playing with them as much.
I see a lot of scripts, and very few of them leap off the page at you.
Our vision is to break the projects into stories that must be told, stories that we would like to tell and stories that people go to movies for. If we can find great scripts that fit these three categories, we will go out and make a movie.
I was unusual looking – I didn’t have the look of that time. If you look at ‘Lucas‘ – and, basically, my first five or six movies – the characters are not described in the scripts as attractive people.
When I was doing Bond, I was always being sent scripts to play the derring-do hero, with explosions going on all around.
I try to keep myself busy creatively; it’s for my own sanity after auditioning in the city for bad television shows and bad scripts and not being a name and having the clout to get my tapes passed on further.
I’ll read, like, ten scripts, and then sometimes if I’m lucky, there will be two or three scripts that I like, and sometimes they’ll all be dramas, or they’ll all be comedies, or there will be two dramas and a comedy, and then I’ll go for whatever. If I have to audition, I’ll audition. If it’s an offer, great.
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!
Every year I hear people complain that the quality of screenplays and movies is declining. In my opinion, the vast majority of scripts written – as well as most movies that are released – are not very original, well-written, or interesting. It has always been that way, and I think it always will be.
I don’t choose scripts with the intent to get an award.
A lot of times, scripts are written so the character is all one way. Even with ‘Bringing Out the Dead,’ the character was written a little more generic.
The absolute base-level thing that you do as a new screenwriter is send out query letters. Literally, you just say, ‘Hi, Mr. So-and-So,’ and you give them a one-sentence description of one of your scripts. You send it out to a list of people you found on the Internet.
When I entered the industry, I wanted to work with good directors like Mani Ratnam and Gautam Menon; that’s why I did Tamil films. I realised later that I was not adding anything to the Tamil scripts and that it was a waste of time for me.
Every actor has to deal with what’s on his plate, and I try to deal with doing the best work possible with the most challenging scripts. I don’t base it on whether it’s a feature film or a TV-movie or cable.
I think it’s a bad habit for an actor to change scripts because that’s not your job. You’re not a writer, necessarily – although there are some actors that are good at it.
‘Police Story’ had some of the best writing on television, and one reason for that is because most of the scripts were based on real cases.
I read a lot of scripts, but few of them stand out to me.
Movies, particularly the big hit movies, are all just special effects. But on television, the writers are in control of the shows, and they control the scripts.
I’m always attracted to bold, risk-taking scripts.
Some scripts you read and say, ‘I’ve just got to do this’ and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.
For every three scripts that you get through, one will be made, and that doesn’t even necessarily mean that they’re going to cast you in it.
I love to write. I write everything across the board – kids’ stories and novels and scripts. I actually would like to give that a go; I’d like to try to be a writer.
I get a lot of emails of scripts and pilots, and they want me to give feedback, and sometimes I can’t because it’s so many.
I like to wake up late, around 11 A.M., especially if I have been out the night before. Then I go to brunch with either my friends or my girlfriend. I then like to just chill out: read the papers, read some scripts and then take it very easy. If it’s sunny, I go for a walk with my dog, Niles, in the countryside.
Once, I had so many scripts coming to me that I could hardly read them all.
And I find it very easy to memorize the scripts, which are so close to conversations my husband and I have.
Soon after ‘Paruthiveeran’ I was flooded with scripts that were almost the same as the award-winning film. I had offers from Malyalam, Telugu and Kannada filmmakers. But I had to be firm and in fact I realized that now I had to be more careful with my choice of films because I have raised the audience expectations.
I’ve got my own TV stuff on the go, and it’s all a bit oddball – it’s one-offs, and I can do what, when, and how I want it, really. I don’t have any scripts or people telling me to do stuff twice.
Now I can broadcast to an audience of several million people on the ‘Today’ programme. I can talk about the day’s news. But on radio, believe it or not, we have notes and scripts. And while we might ad lib the odd wryly amusing asides, they come at the frequency of a suburban bus. About one every 90 minutes.
I feel the best scripts are those that are originally written to be films: that is film in its purest sense.
There isn’t really a stylistic recipe for fonts to make them particularly suitable to be translated into different scripts.
It’s really interesting with scripts, because you never really know. It’s paper and it could be great or awful. Even scripts that are good could end up not working.
I want to work with intelligent people and look for scripts that I think are intelligent and surprising.
Hundreds of people who’ve never written before send in ‘Dr. Who’ scripts. They may have good ideas, but what they fail to realise is that writing for TV is incredibly complicated. They have no idea how difficult it is and what the financial commitment is.
Personally, I read a lot of scripts.
Sometimes the characters I find the most compelling are in independent movies. With independent scripts people can take more challenges.
During the ’90s, a lot of us in the indie film world were not making our money off our movies. We were screenwriters doing scripts for hire for studios.
I think the fact that I have a solid head on my shoulders and a brain inside that head gives me an edge over my competitors. It helps when I am giving interviews, charting out strategy for my career and choosing scripts.
Most scripts that get written in Hollywood don’t go anywhere.
If you put someone in a room with no script to direct, they’re just going to sit there. Writing scripts is the execution for a show. Then the director takes that and hires people. It’s like trying to build a house without any bricks. You need the script. I could build the house, but I have to know how.
I’ve read some scripts, but I don’t read as many books as I should.
After ‘Ishq Brandy,’ I was either not getting good scripts or not good characters.
I do a lot of improvising when I’m writing, and I work very hard on the scripts… they are written very much in an actor-friendly way.
There aren’t enough good scripts.
I was opposed to doing TV for a long time because I thought the quality of writing wasn’t very strong, as opposed to film, but there’s been a shift in term of the quality of scripts. HBO has attracted a tremendous amount of great writing talent.
Oftentimes, you read these pilot scripts that come through for American work, and they don’t sing to you. I’ve got to be honest, not many of them ignite the flame or give you that burning feeling of, ‘Oh, God, I really want to be a part of this.’
I get sent horror scripts every week and most of them are putrid. A lot of people think it’s an easy medium but it’s not. Not if you want to make ones that last.
Dhanam’ is one of the interesting scripts that I came across. It centers around me.
I don’t like scripts.
In the last 10 to 12 years when things were not going my way, I was just writing scripts. I have a bank of 10 to 12 scripts for web-series, films and short films.
Facts are, directors are not thinking of me; they think I only act in my films, because they’re stupid. Or they think I’m a control freak, that I will try to, I don’t know, pimp their scripts and just change everything, which I will never do.
Some of the material out there – I don’t want to say that it’s all bad – but there’s a lot of bad stuff out there. You just continue reading scripts, and eventually you find something you connect with.
When I was in New York, a lot of my friends were studying filmmaking and would bring their scripts to me, as I was a good script doctor. I would read their scripts and make corrections to them for $20 per script and was fascinated by films.
I’m open to all kind of scripts. As long as there’s enough scope to perform, I’d take up the offer. In fact, before Yuvan and ‘TT’ happened, I got an opportunity to work with a top actor-director combination. But my height proved to be a setback.
You see a lot of good ideas or well-written scripts that are bad ideas.
Shooting for ‘Gandhi‘ was a revelation for me. We were all given scripts and then we were asked to do our homework. I searched for books on Kasturba, but I found only two books, that’s all. So I had to rely on my own skills.
Although Bill Finger literally typed the scripts in the early days, he wrote the scripts from ideas that we mutually collaborated on. Many of the unique concepts and story twists also came from my own fertile imagination.
When I was a kid, I wrote to the BBC, and the producers sent me a huge package through the post with ‘Doctor Who‘ scripts. I’d never even seen a script and couldn’t believe that they actually wrote this stuff down. It sort of opened a door.
So many times, you get sent scripts where it’s, like, the token chick, where the woman is just there to serve the man in the film.
I am always open to working with debutant directors, as they bring a new perspective to a script. That motivates me and helps me choose unique scripts.
I was creator and executive producer of ‘The Brady Bunch’ on TV. The stage version was done by others, but it was a repeat of the old scripts. The ‘Gilligan’ musical is a completely original work with all seven characters and 18 original songs.
The best thing for me is, when I’m not working, is to be at home and to have a script or two scripts is better, and to be just walking around the house and just thinking about the lines.
I find that dialogue is bad in most scripts. I just think there are very few writers that can capture the natural way people talk.
It’s usually the exact same three things which are, the Scripts, the Director and the Role those are the three things I look for and really any two of them, If I get two of them that’s usually enough, but definitely those are the things I look for.
I watch the TV or learn scripts while on the elliptical – need to get back on it!
I’m always attracted to lower budget, not because it’s lower budget, but because they tend to be better scripts.
I’ve rewritten a lot of the scripts I’ve done. ‘Little Shop Of Horrors‘ was a complete rewrite, but I didn’t touch the dialogue. Essentially, I’m a very good editor.
Different kind of cinema is being created, people are coming up with different kind of scripts, they are able to come up with scripts that work with the audiences and also scripts which will have something to say to the audience, which is a heart-warming thing.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
I’ve seen so many scripts, and I want to do everything. Like with kiteboarding, you have to be fearless. I’m not scared.
I don’t think people realize how many scripts you write that go nowhere.
Well, honestly I have never been very good at judging scripts.
In my own life, I’ve written scripts that I want to direct, so I would love to take my own creativity in a way where I could tell my own story. That does inspire me, the idea of becoming a director.
Since ‘Heroes‘ started, I’ve probably had about 15 or 16 film scripts sent to me with Indian characters, and out of those, maybe one was good.
‘Hardware‘ came about because I had written quite a few scripts and hadn’t had any luck getting them made.
I don’t believe in closed scripts; I think that they should be open.
With the performances, I have been very fortunate to pick things and to find scripts that I really love. I always try to do something that I haven‘t done before.
Certain scripts require an ensemble cast. I’m absolutely fine with that. I will not deprive myself of the chance to be part of a good film because of insecurities or fear of losing my market. But my role must be well-defined.
White Lines’ is without a doubt one of the best, most imaginative, brilliantly bonkers scripts I’ve ever had a chance to work on.
When I was 23, I went to work for Jack Nicholson reading scripts. Later, I was married to a production designer named Richard Sylbert. So I lived in Los Angeles for ten years.
I’ve been very fortunate with the scripts I’ve had and the people I worked with.
Don’t allow old traditions to become permanent mental scripts for managing your life in the present. Reason: you will not be able to transform yourself to think differently and be better as you grow with age and maturity.
I’d like to produce more films in Hindi, provided I get good scripts.
The one good thing is that I get a lot more good scripts coming through my letterbox. ‘Vera Drake‘ raised my profile in one way, and then ‘Harry Potter‘ in another.
I’m a very visual person, which is probably why I make videos rather than write scripts.
I feel like the scripts were so wonderfully written in the sense that my character in ‘1666’ and my character in ‘1994’ mirrored each other in a really nice way. They’re both so strong, empowered, determined, and passionate.
I’m not staying away from any genre. I’m trying to get scripts that I like.
I don’t even give my scripts to friends because I just feel it’s, like, I don’t need one more set of opinions.
There are no great scripts – just great films.
I’m always looking for films, but the horror scripts that I get tend to be very repetitive and often not that interesting.
Television offered me the opportunity to do new things; I had written a lot of scripts other than scary movies. I had actually written some romantic comedies and stuff that I really wanted to try my hand at, and nobody would let me do that. Television allowed me to do anything I wanted.
You’re sent scripts, and for some, as soon as you start reading them, you feel an instant connection to the character. You know who they are, you know how to play them, and there is instant enthusiasm. Then, at the audition, you don’t have nerves because of that natural affinity.
‘Skins‘ is actually a part of who I am as a person, so I was really focused on making sure the scripts and the story lines were right.
I want to see some scripts written by women and projects being directed by women.
With these scripts and these writers, so much of it is done for me. Because we don’t just throw words around: we make sure the audience understands.
There’s the same percentage of genius happening in both genders, but there’s less women writing scripts and out there looking for the job.
The reason that some motion-capture films don’t work is if the scripts are not good, and the characters aren’t engaging, then you don’t believe in the journey, and you’re not connected to it. It’s not the technology‘s fault.
When you get scripts and you really enjoy reading them, you know it’s a good project.
When people slave over those scripts and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for them, they don’t usually want you to add farts.
I’ve been involved with great scripts and so-so leadership, and it’s clear to me that leadership is the most compelling factor.
I don’t understand scripts really well, but I do whatever my heart tells me.
I would write scripts and little plays and perform them in the living room for my family when I was little with my brother until my mom said, ‘Alright, you need to go do it somewhere else other than the house.’
It’s hard to find scripts that know what they are from page one to page 115.
I never think of myself as a big star. Getting good scripts is all I think about. I don’t have a godfather or anyone to take care of me. To move forward, I have to be very careful in choosing the right scripts, the right director, and the right technicians.
My scripts are possibly too talkative. Sometimes I watch a scene I’ve written, and occasionally I think, ‘Oh, for God’s sake, shut up.’
I don’t really look for a script and go, ‘I need to do a thriller, so I’m going to do this.’ I just read scripts and look for the best possible story.
I hate going to bed. I read scripts, clean, listen to the radio – I’ve fallen asleep to ‘This American Life‘ more times than I can count!
My deal with Marvel is I have a consulting deal with them as well as a contract to make ‘Avengers.’ That means I’ll read all the scripts, I’ll look at cuts.
A lot of scripts are written with an eye on what will be popular or what will titillate or what this actor can do well. I don’t think those kinds of scripts ever work.
In the movies, you typically do get to see the script beforehand. TV is different because there are a lot of scripts in the future that you haven’t seen. You commit to a show, and you have to believe in the showrunner and their team and the stories they’re going to tell.
I remember reading ‘Disturbia,’ one of the first scripts I ever got, and I go ‘Pfft, who wants to make a movie about a guy in a house?’
You don’t read many scripts, especially for crime dramas, that feature a strong woman as the central character.
Reality TV finds talented people. There are no scripts. The editing is what it’s all about. Great editing makes those shows.
I have been writing songs and poems since I was a little girl. I started writing short scripts, which evolved into the idea for a book.
As a director, I really have to rely on my first impression because I utilize that to best tell the story – that’s all the audience has. I let the scripts be my Bible.
I’m not one of those actresses that asks what’s going to happen. I’ve never been. I just take the scripts, and I see what’s given to me, and I go with it that way.
I give preference to scripts and of course, the importance of my role in the storyline. Still I am not after hero roles. I take such roles only when I find the scripts exciting.
Some of my scripts need the larger catchment area of Bollywood. But some suit Telugu films.
It’s unusual when you get scripts not wanting to change things – I’m one of those actors who writers must hate as I’m always wanting to rewrite or swap bits about.
I’m not saying no to anything, at least as far as reading scripts. I don’t care if it’s television or films but, personally, I would say I’d like to establish myself more in film.
Brave browsers block everything: initial signaling/analytics scripts that start the programmatic advertising ‘dirty pipe‘, impression-tracking pixels, and ad-click confirmation signals.
I can say yes to some directors without even reading a script. But the first-time directors I’ve worked with, the scripts have not been perfect, but they had something that I liked.
In Hollywood, they create banks of scripts, whether they are used or not.
The trouble is, being an actor, you’re always being sent scripts, so you’ve always got something to read. You’ve always got about three scripts to read, that you have to read, all the time. So finding a book or getting into a book series is hard, especially for me.
I find that most of my scripts have a lot more scenes than most films, so the average movie might have 100 scenes, my average script has 300 scenes.
No. I didn’t look at the last few scripts. I didn’t want to read them because I’m a ‘Breaking Bad‘ fan. I wanted to experience it with everyone.
I read as many scripts as I can and just find stuff that I think is interesting, find stories that I think are worth telling.
I want to aspire to something like what Denzel Washington does, which is try to find scripts written for white actors – or Jodie Foster, who reads scripts for male actors.
We lack good film scriptwriters. People like Anjan Chowdhury who could develop scripts of pure entertainers are quite difficult to find now. There are obviously some exceptions like Padmanabha Dasgupta. But how many scripts can one single Padmanabha Dasgupta churn out!
I’m so bored of reading scripts with these wonderfully complex male roles, yet the woman character just sits on the bed waiting for him to come home.
My dad couldn’t connect to my wanting to be a filmmaker. He was very connected in entertainment, and through him I met Steven Spielberg and got rides on his private plane to California. I’d see Spielberg’s people reading scripts. I was like, ‘That’s what I want to be when I grow up.’
I get a lot of ‘Oh, you’ve been gone.’ I wasn’t gone. Just because you didn’t see me doesn’t mean I wasn’t working and collecting checks. I just wasn’t singing and doing videos. I do a lot of other things, like I said, like writing scripts and stuff like that. I write for other artists.
You need good scripts to approach stars.
It’s my job to write the best book I can each month and hand my scripts in. Everything else is beyond my control.
There is a perception that I do certain kind of films. That’s not true. I am open to any good scripts with a good role.
The multilevel, the conscious and the unconscious, is natural when I write scripts, when I come up with ideas and stories.
I’ve written a couple of scripts. Actually, a pilot. I’m not sure I’m allowed to say, but it’s a comedy about three young men in New York City, one of whom may or may not be a romantic like me.
I have always been fascinated by Kollywood because of the interesting scripts and genres that they come up with.
I don’t really have a structured path of wanting to say, ‘This is what I’ll do next.’ I’m just going to read a bunch of scripts and see which one I love. There are so many things I would love to play, in all different genres.
I was at the National Film School and was a cinematographer there. I got quite a lot of experience on documentary film-making and with directors who were interesting – maybe they weren’t using scripts or were using non-actors.
I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.
I get bored with unintelligent scripts. When I read the first page and I can tell what is going to happen, I know I don’t want to make the film. It’s two months work and I would get deeply bored. I would even prefer to do something that didn’t work at the box-office, so long as it kept my interest alive.
As a producer, I want to back projects, talents, and scripts that speak to me not just as someone from the industry, but as an audience.
I would say 80% of the scripts I get are dramas and not comedies or romantic comedies, which is funny because that’s what I do every week.
Like most struggling writers trying to get their scripts commissioned, I had to do something odd to pay the rent. So, aged 21, I started up my own small cheesecake company in Philadelphia.
Film scripts are more important for me than the language of the film.
The more I read scripts, the more I learn about scripts, basically.
It is rare that you read scripts that genuinely move you and make you feel that, regardless of the commercial possibilities, you have to make the film.
Working for several years as a waitress, you learn really quickly a couple of default scripts, so you know exactly what the interaction is going to be when the person sits down at the table.
I will do a film if there is a good scope for acting. I am looking for good scripts.
I never had a boundary as an actor and I am open to interesting scripts.
What more can an actor ask for than being surrounded by scripts to choose from?
The beauty with U.K. productions is that, most of the time, you get all of the scripts when you audition for them.
The kind of scripts I have read for web shows have been outstanding.
Showrunning is when you’re the constant creative voice in the show. For a year-and-a-half, you are working on the scripts, you’re fine-tuning them, you’re the final say on the edit, the music and the cast.
Females want other females to be really strong, so there are a whole lot of scripts that are basically just male parts renamed as a girl.
On TV, you never know where it’s going. They may even lie to you about where it’s going. You never really know because the scripts come in every couple of weeks or so.
I like taking up challenges. I prefer working with scripts that are different and veer from the tried and tested. So far, it’s always worked.
I used to do films for money earlier. I never knew what perception meant. I didn’t give too much attention to scripts. It was either to buy a house or to buy a car. There was a certain frivolity to the way I used to pick up things. I wasn’t taking my career seriously.
Well, with all shows that become successful, Ive always had a gut feeling. All of the shows that Ive been involved in that have become successful Ive had this gut feeling from reading the scripts.
My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I’m in this wonderful position to be able to do that. The reason I do that is because I know what it takes once I engage, what that means for me personally and for my wife.
A lot of times you have to dip into the independent world to find the really great projects and the really great scripts. They’re out there – you just have to search hard.
It’s true, I’m the youngest, highest-grossing French director. I have a few records, but no one knows or simply doesn’t care. That’s good, because I like that. Ultimately, I want to keep working, making a lot of movies, and get better at it. It’s about finding great scripts and bringing them to life.
Ahana does lots of things; that’s the problem with her. She is a fashion designer and is also writing some scripts. She doesn’t want to do the regular commercial films. So she has decided that only if she really likes something, then she will take it up.
Ever since my first film, I had more producers than scripts. And I’ve realised that a certain project requires a certain kind of producer for it to be made well.
You start out with scripts pre-written, with no specific actor in mind, so you’ve got to build a character on top of that foundation. It’s not just lifting words off the page, it’s constructing a history around them as well.
I worked in script development, many years ago, and read a lot of scripts. Between that and the scripts I’ve read as an actor, and I’m a writer as well, I think I have a pretty good sense about whether the bones of a story are there and whether the structure is intact.
I’ve been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing, and making music.
I don’t choose my directors, but I choose my scripts wisely.
I’m not one of those shoppers where I go to a store and I’m like, trying it on, I’m not sure, ‘Oh, can you put this on hold?’ No. It’s either love it or hate it. And it’s the same way with scripts. I usually know within the first 10 pages. If I don’t latch into it by then, then it’s not going to happen.
You would not believe some of the scripts I have seen. I have read something like 160 that I’ve rejected, and I keep them all, for posterity.
All my films have been larger-than-life. And since I’ve sat on almost all the scripts of the films I’ve produced, I do not compromise on aesthetics and visuals that could add to a scene.
I read a lot of scripts, so I know by page 25 if I like it or not.
‘Criminal Intent’ scripts are very good. Like others involved in ‘Law & Order’ stuff, I’ve come to appreciate the lack of ‘soap,’ if you will. The story dominates. You don’t spend a lot of time with the psychological underpinnings of the police.
Sound is very important to us, even in our scripts. We write-in tons of sound effects.
I would play the lead role in films which have scripts that suit me.
I read a lot of scripts that I just don’t find very funny.
All of my scripts are based on other people’s novels. Generally, I consider myself as one who writes for theatre. I do not see film work as a continuation of writing for theatre. It is more of an interruption of the writing process.
All great scripts need not reach silver screen, and every good story can’t be narrated in a 2-hour film.
I have an idealistic approach to acting. I want to be great at it, but you can’t be great if the scripts are not there and the director doesn’t know what he’s doing.
There are very few parts, and very few scripts, that acknowledge women as sexual beings, or simply just recognise that women have desires.
I practice reading all the time. I read everything and having so many scripts to read, which really helps out as well.
The first time someone called me a role model, I remember thinking, ‘What does that mean?’ But I feel aware of it when I’m reading scripts.
A lot of scripts that I was given I didn’t feel were right for me, because I didn’t feel anything for them – I didn’t feel like I was going to change in life and start directing.
How can you turn down Marks and Gran? Their scripts are so rich in texture.
Success is freedom – scripts coming your way and getting to choose the stories you want to tell.
The reason I turn down 99% of a hundred, I mean a thousand, scripts is because romantic comedies are often very romantic but seldom very funny.
Scripts and directors make great actors, not the other way around.
About half the scripts sent to me feature characters I just can’t identify with, particularly one-dimensional businessmen or, if it’s a comedy, some absurd 10-year-old Japanese stereotype, some role related to IT or business… There’s no point in getting mad about it; it’s just the way things are.
I sort of love reading the scripts and going, ‘Oh wow, what a great idea. I never would have thought of that.’
Scripts that make characters a two-sentence description, I’m not interested in.
In the summer of 2010, I had decided to get into film and TV writing, so I wrote scripts for six different ideas I had developed, and the pilot for ‘True Detective‘ was one of them.
Yes, I did have occasional scripts like a ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ or a ‘Talwaar’ that nurtured the performer in me, but I do wish there were more options.
Hollywood versions of watershed moments in American history are generally high-minded shlock. ‘JFK,’ ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt,’ even ‘Lincoln‘: all of these boast excellent performances in scripts that are ultimately very conventional, even conservative.
There’s no one I trust in show business more than Sabrina Wind. She’s my eyes and ears when I can’t be there. She weighs in on everything, from scripts to sets to advertising.
I read a lot of scripts, and there’s a lot of good writing and a lot of OK writing and a lot of crappy writing. And even with the really good writing, it doesn’t necessarily speak to me.
I write scripts in storyboard fashion using stick figures, and thought balloons and word balloons and captions. Then I’ll write descriptions of what scenes should look like and turn it over to the artist.
I am open to writing more, and not just film scripts but maybe also a book.
The Cyrillic and Greek scripts in particular have an alien beauty in their unfamiliar letterforms. Five weights of stroke thickness create subtle variations in light and dark that reflect the emerging and fading of the stars.
I was drawn to gay parts because of their scripts, what the roles offered.
John Sullivan’s scripts were always very funny, and cast and crew got on well.
I just need good scripts, good films, and I am glad I am doing them.
There would always be scripts that came along that I turned down, like Gang Member #5 – roles that were just stereotypes.
There are definitely scripts I start reading, where it doesn’t interest me. Maybe it’ll be a good movie, but the character doesn’t intrigue me.
Scripts are very different to books. They are blueprints for building, not the building.
It is always exciting to receive the scripts before we start on a new series.
I don’t see a difference between playing a performance capture role and a live action role, they’re just characters to me at the end of the day and I’m an actor who wants to explore those characters in fantastically written scripts. The only caveat is a good story is a good character.
I never learned to be a writer. I never took screenwriting courses. I never read anyone’s scripts. As a writer, my only guiding principle has been to write about things that scare me, write about things that make me feel vulnerable, write about things that will expose my deepest fears, so that’s how I write.
Marketing is such a key issue; in fact, the marketing department is often involved in the approval of scripts now.
As the scripts come in they are sent to the artists, and the artists are either very busy, or ready to start.
I go by my instinct in selecting scripts for my banner. Some times it works and some times it does not.
I have come close to producing films. But generally by the time they hit the screen, there’s about 50 people with producer credits, so what’s the point. I usually find scripts I like with no money attached and take them to producers that I know and try to raise finance.
I have scripts that I’ve only shown to animals… and they passed on them.
I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn’t have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.
When I first read the script a few years ago I thought it was one of the best written scripts I had ever read.
My manager sent me the first two scripts for ‘True Detective,’ and I just thought they were so interesting and that the world they were depicting was so titillating to me.
So often, I read scripts and am like, ‘This would never happen in real life. It’s not trying to be funny. It’s trying to be serious.’
I have always been attracted to good scripts and try hard to make characters as believable as possible. That means trying to figure out how they would react to situations, what they eat, think, and feel.
A lot of times, especially with TV, I would get these scripts, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they want me to be the good-looking guy who’s a little bit of a rascal.’ It’s just boring.
I write all my scripts with Salman in mind. He understands me perfectly on the sets.
I just read the scripts that come to me, and I see the ones which I really kind of understand and connect with, whether that’s a science fiction or a period piece. It doesn’t really matter as long as they’re original and I have something to do with the character.
I really like questions. I like people who write scripts because they’re asking questions, not because they’re giving answers. It’s something that I look for.
I’d get scripts and think: ‘What’s the point of this?’
A lot of the scripts I read and the characters I get are ‘the girl’ in romantic films, and I don’t know how comfortable I am, or the world is, with me being that.
Like any other actor, I want to work with good directors, and I always look for good scripts. I’ve had to say no to some people; I suspect that’s the reason I’m called arrogant.
I’m not really that keen on mainstream; I’m not interested in doing the normal films. I do tend to go for the quirky, different scripts.
There comes a time as you continue to write and work on scripts and screenplays where you realize that you have opinions about the next step of the process, and you kind of want more control over the translation from page to screen.
As an actor, the toughest thing is being subject to circumstance. Meaning: What scripts are out there that are available?
I am a greedy actor: I want all the scripts to come to me. So I do all the good films which come my way, even if it means I’ll rest a little less.
The way I choose parts is I look at the scripts… I choose a part by whether or not it challenges me.
If you read scripts, you would see people rarely speak like that in real life, in complete sentences.
You’re always looking for good scripts and when they’re not always forthcoming you go mad.
I love to be a working actor, and I love to read scripts as they come in. If I find the script or character that is interesting, I want to transform myself into that character.
I just choose the scripts I want to work on. I don’t know why. It’s not something conscious or that I’m doing on purpose.
You learn, even at ‘S.N.L.,’ that the funniest scripts a lot of the time were written with the actor, because they know what makes people laugh. It’s always going to be better if they own it.
Scripts specify ‘minority‘ when it doesn’t seem necessary. Given this is a traditionally liberal and progressive industry, it’s surprisingly backwards.
I read a lot of scripts at the beginning of 2015.
It’s very difficult to find good scripts in Hollywood any more.
As an actor, one is constantly reading scripts and interacting with creative teams. Sometimes, things work and sometimes, they don’t. It’s never in an actor’s hands.
Scripts can be slick and structured, but do they always contain the truth?
After playing Saffy in ‘Ab Fab’, I needed to take time out from acting to see if I really wanted to do it. I had been doing it for a very long time and I was being sent the same sort of scripts again and again.
I’m reading scripts, desperately wanting to work. I’ve set a couple of things up for next year.
In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.
I admit, I do a lot of projects, but it’s because I’m in a position now where I’m reading a lot more scripts and plays and things, and I’m really listening to offers and trying to think what I want to do at any given time.
My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me.
These kinds of scripts telling the stories of women are very rare.
I’ve got a big closet of scripts, and a big stack of scripts on the side of my desk, because you get a whole bunch. Nothing’s going to be perfect, and I realize that; but I am a perfectionist, so you go through a lot of stuff.
Usually, I write my scripts first, then think of the actors, or I have a reference of someone.
I always try to pick up interesting scripts, and thankfully, I have been lucky to get scripts like ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama,’ ‘Akash Vaani’, and ‘Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.’
Four of my films have been remade in Tamil and Telugu. Although I haven’t seen any of these remakes, I do feel happy that I’ve been a part of good films. It’s nice to know that some scripts still leave behind a mark after their theatrical run this way, so I have to admit, it is quite flattering.
I do try to look at scripts and keep an eye out for challenging roles.
I would be surprised though if I don’t get unbelievable critical acclaim for ‘Dirty Picture’ and a national award for my actress, Vidya Balan. The movie has one of the most well-written scripts I have come across, and a lot of youngsters in my office have looked at it with great admiration.
The scripts that I take should be solid in terms of content; only then will my inability as an actor not show up on the screen.
In major studio scripts, the girls are very similar. They’re all witty and hot. I’m more of an oddball.
J. J. Abrams is a director that I’ve admired for a long time, from the very first scripts he wrote – including ‘Regarding Henry,’ which I was in.
My parameter of judging a script has not changed over the years. I still go for a script where the story interests me. Yes, there are times where I might go wrong; say, out of five scripts, I might go wrong on one.
When good things come in, my agent calls or sends me the script. But I allow them to sort through the offers so that I am not just sitting and reading everything because honestly, sometimes the scripts that appeal to me are projects that are not good projects, but I just really like the script or the characters.
I never choose scripts on the basis of whether the girl is like me. I don’t want to play myself… I live with myself, and it isn’t fun!
Writing film scripts is the hardest thing in the world. A script has to go to five or six drafts, and you need the feedback of other people and to keep coming back with a fresh eye, honing it down.
Like any other actor, I also look for good scripts and want to portray some memorable characters on screen.
I love travelling, and most scripts have been written while I have been travelling.
Many people from the industry come up to me and say ‘We don’t see you onscreen much.’ But where are the scripts? Do you think I am not sitting in my office and waiting for something like ‘Matru’ to happen to me? I would love to do four such films in a year.
Good scripts are difficult to come by in the industry, especially if you are an outsider.
I want to make my own films from my own scripts based on stories I want to tell, but they take time to put together.
I get a lot of scripts, but they’re all for the same type of character.
I’m just thinking I’m just like a normal actor who gets scripts, and I read them, and… if I enjoy reading them, then that’s what’s exciting, then I get excited about the audition or the project itself.
Avunu’s stellar run at the BO and the positive response from the audience was such that most scripts coming my way from Telugu have been from the horror genre!
I was kind of burned out, a little jaded, and just sort of disillusioned by all the ‘Mighty Duck’ movies and everything just being about making money and not really caring about scripts anymore.
I believe realism is nothing but an analysis of reality. Film scripts have a synthetical constitution.
I really hate people that spoil stuff by putting scripts online. I don’t mind so much people that do movie spoilers when the movie is out in the theater. If you haven’t gotten there the first weekend, it’s on you to not read reviews or anything. But to put up screenplay reviews just kills me.
I regard myself as a beautiful musical instrument, and my role is to contribute that instrument to scripts worthy of it.
I find the most interesting and most daring scripts tend to be for independent films.
I don’t get a lot of romantic comedy scripts.
Whenever I hear the narration for a new film, I have this process back home where my mother reads all my scripts.
I take time to write my script, if I have more scripts, I will make more movies.
I think especially as creative people we rely so heavily on our gut instinct to create emotional beats or bring scripts to life. Go with what you feel is right, because thats all we can really do. Were the expert of our own experience, so be as authentic as you can.
I came to Hollywood and felt myself an outsider, and I was sent all these action thrillers and superhero scripts.
Pilot season’s such a strange time. You get such a concentrated amount of scripts. A lot of them become white noise after a while. When something really pops, it becomes apparent very quickly. I’m quite instinctive about that. I know, normally by about 10 pages in, whether I want to do something or not.
I don’t get that many scripts. Back in Australia, I’ve pretty much done my own shows and really no work outside of that. It’s only now that I’m starting to read some Hollywood film scripts, and I’ve read some really great ones.
There’s not a huge pile of scripts at home. It’s what happens to be on the table at that moment with your availability. And then you have no control over when these things come out.
There’s no point in me meeting with a bunch of producers or studios, because I’ll write my own scripts in my own time.
I think on our first two movies we weren’t really writing for anybody else above us and that’s not to say that movies aren’t ours in the way we want them to be in terms of the scripts.
Scripts were rather scarce in 1968. We did a lot of Amiri Baraka’s plays, the agitprop stuff he was writing. It was at a time when black student organizations were active on the campuses, so we were invited to the colleges around Pittsburgh and Ohio, and even as far away as Jackson, Mississippi.
I have always wanted to be more interested in scripts.
Hollywood is in control of politics and has imported their action-filled movie scripts into the real world.
I live in a small town in Connecticut, and they don’t write scripts there, but I get them anyway because my agent is in Los Angeles.
It certainly isn’t like I’m reading scripts thinking I need to do something really different. But you want to stretch yourself and challenge yourself; that’s really the major turnon when you’re going into work.
The wonderful thing about ‘Star Trek‘ is that they’re very open to suggestions for scripts and story ideas from the viewers. That’s really unique.
Be serious. You’ve got to do the job you were hired to do well, but there’s always more you can do. When I was an assistant, I would say to myself, ‘You may not be an executive, but act like one.’ I would volunteer for any creative assignment – read scripts, do ‘coverage,’ write notes.
Dream projects are always a funny thing to label. I guess just more exciting scripts in my inbox. Maybe an exciting script about John Lennon.
‘Carrie Diaries‘ was one of the scripts that was sent my way, and it was instantly something I wanted to work on. It was very charming, and there’s a lot of heart to it. It was touching and nostalgic and relatable, and it validates so many coming-of-age issues in an open and honest way. I think it speaks to real life.
When I choose projects, I don’t stipulate between film or theatre or television. I receive scripts and I read scripts – and when I read a script that’s good, I then get married to it and talk to my agent about what happens next.
I had been quite judicious about the scripts I was reading, but nothing was really taking my fancy until I pulled this script out: ‘Lucifer.’ I have to say, within about three or four pages, I thought it was hilarious; I laughed out loud a couple of times and knew this is the one that I wanted to do.
The Telugu industry and their scripts are extremely nice.
Films need a good direction, strong scripts, and hardworking actors. ‘Wazir’ has all of these.
I can take scripts directly to actors. Agents don’t like to hear that.
At 14, I started reading popular scripts, wanted to learn Telugu, read books and improve my language. Then I got married at 15.
I try to find scripts of stories that kinda celebrate the human condition… let’s talk about the tough world out there and the human spirit overcoming adversity.
I was deliciously happy filming ‘True Blood.’ I even kept all the scripts in my office, which I never do with any script. Although I did shred them all in one go when the series finished; it seemed like a ritual, somehow.
I learned so much by being an actor, and part of my sort-of development as a writer is big thanks to the scripts I read in my acting life.
I think it took me seven years before I got the script for ‘Frozen River.’ That’s the movie I had been looking for my whole career. When I read that, I knew I had to shoot that movie – that it’d be a game-changer. It was one of those scripts where I read it, and I was like, ‘This movie could get into Sundance.’
It’s overwhelming and humbling to be the recipient of a National Award, and I only hope to find scripts now that will solidify that honor.
I have been reading scripts, going to auditions and looking for the right opportunities.
I hadn’t done comedy before ‘Fresh Meat‘ – I hadn’t really been seen that way, and then ‘Fresh Meat’ came out, and suddenly a lot more comedy scripts were coming my way, which was really great.
To do stories that I love, scripts that I love, and work with people who are passionate about them and passionate about projects – whether that’s on stage or television or film, that’s the kind of environment I want to work in.
Our characters were antiseptic but we weren’t. And if you remember what we did on BATMAN, as the scripts were written very funny, we played them very straight.
If the scripts are not good, I’ll tell somebody, ‘This isn’t good.’
I don’t use composers. I research music the way I research the photographs or the facts in my scripts.
With my characters, I prefer to not say too much, and in fact, I tend to cut down some of the lines in most scripts I get.
You have to read scripts and audition and develop relationships. It takes a long time to develop a body of work but over the last 25 years I guess I’ve done that many movies. In hindsight it may seem effortless, but there’s a lot of work that goes into it.
I always give importance to scripts first, and remuneration is something that comes later.
At some point, I would like to start creating my own things. If people don’t write the scripts I like, then I will do my own.
I went to film school, worked as an assistant, and wrote several scripts that haven’t gotten made.
I’m always attracted to lower budget, not because it’s lower budget, but because they tend to be better scripts. It’s the scripts that tend to be the small arthouse film that tend to be more actor-led and character driven.
I’ve received some English-speaking scripts, but I was not interested in them.
I wound up getting pulled into being a consultant on the Lifetime drama ‘For the People.’ The executive producer said, ‘I want you to write scripts.’ We sold pilots to a bunch of different networks.
I think the scripts for ‘Line of Duty‘ and ‘Blood’ are both asking the audience to get involved in speculating as to what is going to happen next, or what should be happening next.
Good scripts have always been, I think, hard to find. Good storytelling, good writing – it’s just not easy. I have made it a point that – if I’m going to put the energy into doing this work – I will wait until I find something I’m really happy with.
