Quotes from creators
"I knew he wasn't trying to kill me. I hadn't finished making the movie yet."
— Eli Wallach, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly DVD extras
"You didn't say cut, so I just hung on."'
— Harold Sakata on why he let himself be electrocuted for realsies, Goldfinger
"I liked Sigourney Weaver from the moment I met her. Ridley told me 'No, no, don’t start cozying up with Sigourney'. He wanted me to annoy the crap out of her, which I did. He told me to get on Sigourney’s nerves; stop speaking to her on the lunch breaks, dressing rooms, etc. All for the end of the movie at that moment when she blows up at Parker and takes over leadership. I did exactly as Ridley told me. To this day, I don’t know if he ever told her. I will never let a director do that to me again!"
—Yaphet Kotto on Alien
"It’s entertaining—everybody knows somebody like that Bob guy. We and didn’t get along on the movie particularly, but it worked for the movie. I mean, I drove him nuts, and he encouraged me to drive him nuts."
"How about it? Funny movie. Terribly unpleasant experience. We didn’t get along, me and Bill Murray. But I’ve got to give it to him: I don’t like him, but he makes me laugh even now. I’m also jealous that he’s a better golfer than I am. It’s a funny movie. No one ever comes up to you and says, 'I identify with the patient.' They always say, 'I have patients like that. I identify with your character.' No one ever says that they’re willing to identify with the other character."
"His so-called ‘talent’ consists of nothing but tormenting helpless creatures and, if necessary, torturing them to death or simply murdering them... He doesn’t have the foggiest inkling of how to make movies."
So I was driving up to the gate of this estate in a big Cadillac, with Armand Assante sitting next to me and holding a gun to my head, when the neo-Nazis opened fire. Assante jumped out of the car into the bushes, while I kept driving and screaming, "It's me! It's me!" until the car blew up. There were flames shooting past the windows (gas had been ignited along the path of the car), and there were cameras attached to the car on both sides. By the time I finally got out of there, my pants, the laces on shoes, my socks, were all burnt, almost to my calf... (On every picture, the A.D. is the biggest pain in the ass; he's the guy that hollers, "Quiet, we're rolling," and always very loud; they all have terrible voices.) Over his bullhorn, this A.D. was yelling, "We're doing it again, one more take."
"Like hell, you're doing it again," I said. "And if you do do it again, there's somebody else going to be sitting in this goddamned car."
"Like hell, you're doing it again," I said. "And if you do do it again, there's somebody else going to be sitting in this goddamned car."
— Alan King (on the making of I, the Jury), Name Dropping
"Friday the 13th, to me, is just a memory of discomfort, standing with a knife in the pouring rain. And my start point was in this bed of poison ivy. Then, after I jumped out at the girl from my bed of poison ivy I got to fall down in the sludge mud many times. The only really fun thing was being decapitated."
"If I mention the moment with the green slime pouring from my throat, do you remember what I’m talking about? Time Flight. I’m glad it wasn’t me. For some reason, a lot of green muck was to come from my mouth as I became the Master again, and they got this guy, and apparently he nearly died, he nearly choked. That was the only time they used a stand-in."
— Anthony Ainley on
playing the Master
playing the Master"I'm on the phone, at my desk with the Mayor, who's Sonny Bono, right? And I'm saying, 'Get me the Mayor NOW!' I'd slam the phone receiver on my desk, and I've got a cigar in my hand. And the dolly would move closer and closer to me...Take 1, Take 10, Take 12, Take 13, and finally the light producer says, 'Alright, ladies and gentlemen, one more take and then we're gonna take this after lunch, let's GET IT RIGHT!' So I've got this big 'ol fat cigar—I don't smoke, I'm turning green—and they go, 'aaaand ACTION!' And I get on the phone and go, 'Get me the Mayor NOW!' and I slam it on the desk... I don't hear 'cut', it's good, they got it in focus; but what happens is that when I slam my hand on the desk, the ash from my cigar goes flying in the air out-of-camera, and when it comes down, the burning ember from the cigar lands on my hand. And as the camera is coming in closer to me, I at first hear the sound of burning flesh, and then smell my own hand on fire! Oh, yeah! And the nostrils start to quiver, and the eyes start to water, as the camera comes tighter and tighter on this closeup— And they go, 'Oh my god, CUT, PRINT, GREAT JOB, John!'"
— John Shea on his most believable performance ever, Lois & Clark
his most believable performance ever, Lois & ClarkQuotes on works
Last year at San Diego, Burt Ward mentioned during a press conference that this wasn’t trick photography or special effects either, claiming that he was actually on a narrow wooden plank suspended only a few feet above a couple of very hungry tigers. Now, I’m not in the business of contradicting the Boy Wonder, but at the time, I did think it seemed a little unlikely that they’d try such a risky stunt with one of their stars. Then I remembered that this episode opens with either Adam West or the stuntman who drew the short straw literally boxing an actual for real tiger, and it seemed a whole lot more likely.
—Chris Sims on Batman (1966), "Better Luck Next Time"
on Batman (1966), "Better Luck Next Time"Gabriel: He was always in his own movies. He himself was gonna be Leto, his son was gonna be Paul... He said, "Okay, well, you've gotta be like Paul," and had him fuckin' train with some lunatic French martial artists in swords and combat and shit, like six hours a day—every day—for six months.
Yahtzee: Method acting?
Gabriel: That's his kid! That's not method acting, that's just, "You have to be Paul Atreides now!"
Yahtzee: Okay, that is a bit fucked.
Yahtzee: Method acting?
Gabriel: That's his kid! That's not method acting, that's just, "You have to be Paul Atreides now!"
Yahtzee: Okay, that is a bit fucked.
A cop thriller so badass that, for the chase scene, they just shot Gene Hackman driving against traffic in a real street and put that in the movie. Yes, they broke the law to film a movie about a cop who would undoubtedly pump some lead into your ass for doing just that.
It’s an acceptably tense bit, but I get a chuckle from the gasps May lets out every time an explosion goes off... she makes a face like a gaffing fish. Apparently, this was a legit reaction at the time, because Stone wasn’t used to huge explosions going off all around her.
The cost of the movie rose when all of the stunts were really done on location in South America and done by the actors. Do you see that truck? It’s really at that angle on that rickety bridge and [Roy] Scheider is really driving that thing! That’s freaking hardcore! Scheider feared for his life.
Garner was featured in almost every scene and in practically every episode his character gets beaten up or is involved in some climatic chase in which he rarely was doubled. By 1979 he had broken kneecaps, several ribs, knuckles, a spinal bone, and an ulcer to boot. Finally his body could stand it no longer. He checked into a hospital and The Rockford Files went into hiatus.
It never came back. The following month, Universal filed a $1.5 million breach-of-contract suit against the actor, publicly claiming Garner was feigning all his easily verifiable injuries. They pissed off the wrong man... The case was finally settled in 1989 for an undisclosed sum, but the entire process only made Universal look like a den of thieves and, clearly, Garner won in the end."
It never came back. The following month, Universal filed a $1.5 million breach-of-contract suit against the actor, publicly claiming Garner was feigning all his easily verifiable injuries. They pissed off the wrong man... The case was finally settled in 1989 for an undisclosed sum, but the entire process only made Universal look like a den of thieves and, clearly, Garner won in the end."
