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It was just such a demeaning thing to do, being in silent movies. They'd call you up and tell you, 'Hey, jump off this building!' and they'd give you a hundred bucks, and you'd do it.
Sometimes you're not in the best environment. Sometimes you're not speaking the same language and it's not a good place to work. It's a lot to give, actually. And for not a lot of money.
Sometimes I go to movies, and it's just a bombardment, and I'm not entertained by them - I'm assaulted by them! And I know I sound like such a drama queen, but I find that really strange.
People have more dimensions to them than we give them credit for. The person you meet on the street that you think is someone, and it's someone else. I'm mistaken for someone else all the time.
I make a lot of soups, and I love stews. My mother's a big foodie. She went to culinary school in New Orleans and has an oyster-artichoke soup recipe that has no cream in it but it tastes so creamy.
I like trying different foods. I've done vegetarian stuff, and I've gone through meat phases, and then I do no bread, and then I eat bread. I'm really all over the place in the way a lot of actors are.
There are so few movies that still cast on chemistry. Now it's often, like, this person's movies make this amount of money, and this person's movie makes that amount of money, so let's put them together.
Imagine if every airport would blast Brian Eno. I bet going through security wouldn't be as difficult. I can't imagine someone being aggressive with me with Brian Eno music pumping through the terminals at LAX.
I had dreams of conehead aliens when I was little. Before 'Saturday Night Live' did it. And then they came out with them, and I went on to be a glorified extra in the movie. When everyone else was laughing, I was scared.
You can get money and make a really cheap movie. You can, from independent financers who are just giving you money to support artists. This is what was happening in the '90s, and I was very fortunate to be a part of that.
I work with directors who haven't had the experience of being on sets as much as I have. I feel like, in a way, if it's an independent movie, I can teach the crew to kind of relax, or create a vibe. It really is about a vibe.
When my parents were dating, they were very poor, so my dad couldn't take my mom out. They would go to the grocery store and pick out funny looking vegetables. When I grew up, we'd still go and find the ones with personality.
I can do comedy, so people want me to do that, but the other side of comedy is depression. Deep, deep depression is the flip side of comedy. Casting agents don't realize it but in order to be funny you have to have that other side.
I think to do a proper independent movie, in my experience, it takes 22 or 23 days to shoot. That was 'Party Girl' or 'House of Yes.' But now with the digital camera, the budgets have gotten smaller, and the days have gotten shorter.
You're making a fantasy. You're making something real out of a fantasy. And then it no longer exists. It's heartbreaking to leave behind. I was devastated after Waiting for Guffman. I had never gotten so close to people I've worked with.
There are all these scripts where the women, if they're working, are prostitutes and lawyers with an angry streak who'll kill you. It's a reaction to women leaving their men and men being angry about it and saying it on some subconscious level
There are all these scripts where the women, if they're working, are prostitutes and lawyers with an angry streak who'll kill you. It's a reaction to women leaving their men and men being angry about it and saying it on some subconscious level.
It hasn't really made it easier getting film work. It's not like I can call up a studio or a producer and say - insert haughty voice here - 'It's Parker. I guess you might know me as the indie queen. I'm wondering if you have any projects for me to be in.'
Louis C.K. was able to make it happen. His producers don't bug him. He's able to go into his cave and write exactly what he wants to write, and there are no decisions made by committee, and you have a singular voice, and everyone's like, 'Oh my God! We love this.'
I don't, really a fashionable person. I'm an actor, so I like costumes. But fashion is very popular now. Really overly popular. It's like New Age music in the '80s, or art. And then independent film. Now everyone's a fashion designer. It's had a big effect in New York, in our culture.
I did do a presentation pilot with Jesse Eisenberg and he's wonderful. He's such a great writer. He directed me and he wrote these wonderful scripts and we're waiting to hear if marketers and advertisers think that an audience wants to look at a bad mom and her 10-year-old son in a show.
The studios insisted that only stars could make movies successful. And that was the real disappointment of the time. You'd see great writer-directors in the '90s becoming part of a system where financiers and movie stars could change the material. I came along just before all that happened.
How movies are financed, it's a world market now... I feel like, you know, the independent film way of working is something that was in my bones. It's like being a part of a punk band, but no one's singing punk rock anymore. Only a few bands are able to play, and Woody Allen is one of them.
With Dazed and Confused I got the high school experience I didn't get to have. So you do create families and homes. You're projecting and it's your job. The amount of time and headspace and thought it takes on your psyche is huge. It's exhausting, yeah. And it's exhausting but it's also great.
I'm a grown-up and I'm a creative person so I should try to give something to that and see what I can make with that. And not sit around listening to people be like, 'You really should be on an HBO show. You'd be great on an Amazon series.' You're like, 'Thank you, okay. I don't have any offers.'
Chris Guest has his own form. It's a way of working that is really intense and you can commit a lot and you focus a lot. You get to bring a lot. You get to bring things maybe you haven't seen before. You're asked to care a great deal for these people who you're playing and create heart and empathy.
Chris Guest has his own form. It's a way of working that is really intense, and you can commit a lot, and you focus a lot. You get to bring a lot. You get to bring things maybe you haven't seen before. You're asked to care a great deal for these people who you're playing and create heart and empathy.
I like the two worlds coming together in the Internet space, which is so up for grabs... It all struck me when I heard about Twitter and Instagram, how it's like notes you pass in class. If someone's passing you a note, you really should be doing something else, and instead you're like, oh, 'What are you doing?'
I was around New York at a time when independent cinema was at its peak and became kind of popular and mainstream. It got some hype, culturally. After that, studios started to have independent companies within their studio system, and they found bigger stars willing to do new material. That's kind of what it's turned into.
It's always the girl comedy and the guy comedy. It bums me out. You'd think there'd be a progression, from James L. Brooks and Nora Ephron into more subtle humor and behavior and psychology. All these interesting things people can learn about themselves by watching talented writers comment intelligently on someone else's emotional life.
I traveled to Morocco once, and I only saw one television when I was there, but I did go into this dirt cave and I saw this kid chopping tomatoes and pita, and he had a picture on the wall of Jean-Claude Van Damme holding a gun. That connected with him on the other side of the world, so no wonder these big movies are made - they have a mass appeal.
I ran to Rachel [Comey]'s show and on the way I found a potted tree - an umbrella tree - on the street. I always think things are going to be way more intimate than they are and there aren't going to be a lot of people around. I don't know why I think this. I'm always shocked at what a hoopla things are. They were like, 'Hurry up.' So I put the tree down and I see Rachel and she's like, 'Hurry up, sit down.'