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I have to see the whole scene in my head before I go out and do it. Which I do. I will envision the entire scene before I shoot it.

William Friedkin

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William Friedkin
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 29
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Director
Chicago
Illinois
Vilijam Friedkin
Entire
Scene
Head
Whole
Envision
Shoot

More quotes by William Friedkin

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I don't go to the movies much anymore. There's very little that draws me. I watch mostly the older stuff, and I often don't sit through the new films.
William Friedkin
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You don't need great actors to do a 3D picture. All of this condescending stuff that they put out? Oh, we will always need actors. Bullshit! They are able to take anybody and put some markers on them, and have them walk through an empty room. Then they paint in the background.
William Friedkin
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I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.
William Friedkin
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'Star Wars' gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.
William Friedkin
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God knows, as a minority, gay people have taken serious lumps for their sexual preferences. As has every minority.
William Friedkin
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All of the films I have made, that I have chosen to make, are all about the thin line between good and evil. And also the thin line that exists in each and every one of us. That's what my films are about.
William Friedkin
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When you go to a studio with something you want to make, or they come to you with something they want to make, more often than not, it's a tent pole. Not something one single person is really passionate about on a creative level.
William Friedkin
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Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.
William Friedkin
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And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.
William Friedkin
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The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.
William Friedkin
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One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.
William Friedkin
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I tend to be attracted to characters who are up against a wall with very few alternatives. And the film then becomes an examination of how they cope with very few options. And that's, I guess, what interests me in terms of human behavior.
William Friedkin
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Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.
William Friedkin
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I'm not a fan of Star Wars. That is not for me. That is for my nephews and nieces. I don't get it.
William Friedkin
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I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.
William Friedkin
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The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.
William Friedkin
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If you call yourself a non-believer, you're referring to disbelief in something, and you're acknowledging that there is something to believe in or not.
William Friedkin
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The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.
William Friedkin
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The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.
William Friedkin
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There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.
William Friedkin