Quote

I admit there’s an element of brutality in all my work - it’s part of the truth about human existence I always want to explore - but the last thing I’m trying to do is put on some kind of freak show, inviting people to get off on other people’s pain and humiliation.

Todd Solondz

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Todd Solondz
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: October 15
Actor
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Filmmaker
Screenwriter
Newark
New Jersey
Thing
Last
Humiliation
Trying
Show
Freak
Work
Pain
Explore
Kind
Shows
Element
Always
Truth
Admit
People
Part
Elements
Human
Existence
Inviting
Humans
Lasts
Brutality

More quotes by Todd Solondz

Image
When I want to show the kind of meanness people are capable of, to make it believable I find I have to tone it down. It's in real life that people are over the top.
Todd Solondz
Image
If I grew up in a different background, I could see myself getting a gun and shooting an abortionist. That's my job, to imagine what could happen, what can make people go in different directions.
Todd Solondz
Image
I don't make movies with the idea that people are going to walk out of them feeling comfortable or better about themselves or more secure in their own biases or opinions.
Todd Solondz
Image
Some directors hardly talk to the actors at all.
Todd Solondz
Image
I think success is a lot more healthy than failure.
Todd Solondz
Image
You always have to be ahead of the audience so that they have to always catch up and know the movie's not quite going exactly where you think it's going, or expecting it to be going.
Todd Solondz
Image
When part of what you're trying to get at is the truth hidden under a taboo, or when you want to nail a hypocrisy, laughter is a very useful tool. I want to show the painful side of existence, but there is no question I also want to make people laugh.
Todd Solondz
Image
Art has a smaller audience than, say, movies or other forms of mass consumption. But that doesn't mean the work doesn't have an impact in a way that transcends just a few cultural arbiters.
Todd Solondz
Image
Casting is everything. If you get the right people they make you look good.
Todd Solondz
Image
Optimism is not inherently a superior way of viewing the world. Certainly doctors will say it might be better for one's physical health to be an optimist. But, morally speaking it may not be appropriate in certain circumstances.
Todd Solondz
Image
Casting is great fun, except for the business of it. I love the casting process. I love the editing process. I love working with the music. And even prep is very exciting. But once you get there and the clock is ticking, all it is is stress.
Todd Solondz
Image
A movie takes on its own life, and you have to respect that and be open to it.
Todd Solondz
Image
It is true that the movie is perhaps my most politically-charged. The story is thrust into motion by the idea of what do you do when your 13 year old daughter comes home pregnant. And not only is she pregnant, but she wants to keep the baby.
Todd Solondz
Image
One thing I want to say: I don't like victim stories and I don't write them.
Todd Solondz
Image
Storytelling is the only studio movie where the censorship is perfectly clear, the only studio movie with a big red box covering up a shot. I take pride in that - and, of course, in having avoided the fate of Eyes Wide Shut.
Todd Solondz
Image
For me, New Jersey is kind of a mythical place. It's emblematic of a certain aspect of American life. Florida is the same way. It's where people go to recreate, to reinvent themselves. It's what California used to be. I think Florida is still a place to erase the past.
Todd Solondz
Image
The ability to take pleasure in one's life is a skill and is a kind of intelligence.
Todd Solondz
Image
We say we embrace humanity, but what does that mean? We are all defined by our limits, so to what extent can we embrace all this? Because we all contain within ourselves equally the capacity for kindness, as much as for cruelty or evil. And the best of us are able to suppress those baser impulses, instincts. That's the war within.
Todd Solondz
Image
It's one of the great gifts of having so little money that you are able to make these kinds of radical conceits that you could never afford to do had you had a reasonable budget,.
Todd Solondz
Image
Usually the audience has no idea that the censored version of whatever movie they're watching isn't the original.
Todd Solondz