Top 27 Quotes & Sayings by Ben Wheatley

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English director Ben Wheatley.

Last updated on September 19, 2024.

Benjamin Wheatley is an English filmmaker and screenwriter. Beginning his career in advertising, Wheatley first gained recognition and acclaim for his commercials and short films, before transitioning into feature films and television programmes. He is best known for his work in the thriller and horror genres, with his films frequently incorporating heavy elements of black comedy and satire. His best-known works include the psychological horror films Kill List and A Field in England, the J. G. Ballard adaptation High-Rise, and the action comedy Free Fire.

English - Director | Born: 1972

Source: Wikipedia

You really have to be careful with the clues you lay into the film - if they're too heavy-handed, or you've pandered to a slightly stupider audience, then you've spoiled it for the people who are even slightly smart.

Ben Wheatley

If I'd been offered 'Spider-Man,' I probably would have done it. I don't think it's bad to go and do those things.

Ben Wheatley

The only genre I have any problem with is musicals, but that's just my own tastes it's nothing to do with the films.

Ben Wheatley

I think CGI is interesting, but it's too expensive and limiting in terms of what you can do shot-by-shot.

Ben Wheatley

'Doctor Who' is pretty dark, I think. Generally it's dark; it's always been dark.

Ben Wheatley

The whole idea of genre and categorising films is a critic's construct. For me, I just try and make stories and see where they go, but there's nothing wrong with horror; there's nothing wrong with romantic comedies.

Ben Wheatley

The reality of any location in Britain being used in a TV program of a film is that something bad is going to happen! That's the nature of drama. Most of the things that get made or basically grisly detective shows about murders, accidents or medical dramas.

Ben Wheatley

If you judge everything by how photographically real it looks, then you're missing out on a lot of what art is about and what communication is. There are ambiguities in life, and that should be reflected in art, cinema, and storytelling, I think.

Ben Wheatley

You can muscle your way to the top as long as you're part of the production, which I am. I'm knitted into the money, so it's very hard to extricate me from the decision-making dynamic.

Ben Wheatley

There's no way you can shoot low-budget stuff on lots of locations. It's just a practicality thing because every time you move, it costs time and money.

Ben Wheatley

The things that inspire people to think are what keeps a film alive.

Ben Wheatley

I'm very superstitious about going on other people's sets. You have to ask permission of the director; you shouldn't just turn up and skulk about in the background. It's very rude. You have to ask them personally. It's like a vampire being invited into a house.

Ben Wheatley

Society is about masks and hiding and pretending to be something that you're not and not opening up, and in acting, you do all of those things, but it also shows the performers in a very raw state. They have to literally upset themselves to get to that position sometimes. You don't need a load of people judging you or not being interested in what you're doing or being an ass on set because it ruins it.

Ben Wheatley

Sometimes my scripts get so dissolved, and they're so different from when I wrote them originally, that I find it hard to find what I wrote in it.

Ben Wheatley

If an actor commits properly to a role, they do a bit mad during a shoot. If they're going to do that, they should balance themselves by doing a role as a yoga teacher.

Ben Wheatley

Doctor Who is pretty dark, I think. Generally its dark; its always been dark.

Ben Wheatley

I've had pretty much the same crew for all the films that I've made, and I've managed to have really nice, calm, funny people. That is a big part of it, a family feeling of warmth and finding something interesting and making a platform for them to perform. It's a very difficult job, acting, in that it's totally counterintuitive to how we are brought up.

Ben Wheatley

I like that confusion when people are speaking in the same language but still can't understand each other. It's also usually my experience of being in America - when I speak no one can understand what I'm saying.

Ben Wheatley

I tend to shoot really quick so you don't get the problems you might get on a traditional film where you shoot one way, then another, and it's pissing down with rain and they won't cut together. We shoot so fast we can incorporate the weather into it. The worst weather we had was when they were in the caravan up the mountain and there was no cover. One man's weather is another man's production value. To create the sleet would cost a fortune but we got it for free so we'll just have to go with it.

Ben Wheatley

I think CGI is interesting but it's too expensive and limiting in terms of what you can do shot-by-shot.

Ben Wheatley

People say, "How do you get into the British film industry?" There is no British film industry, there are just people making films and finding their own way. It's not like in the States where there are studios and there's an actual infrastructure to it; there's just nothing here. You make it from scratch a lot of the time.

Ben Wheatley

If you make a movie in the UK you've got to embrace the weather with open arms... We got some of the most amazing weather as well. It's maybe why some of these places, like the Lake District, don't get filmed in so much. If you were trying to make it look like some kind of chocolate box image of England you'd be there all year waiting for the sun to come out.

Ben Wheatley

It's part of developing the whole state of how cinema is; everyone is looking out and engaged rather than it being just a financial thing or sitting back, waiting for scripts to turn up.

Ben Wheatley

Film is more of a dream when you're younger. I found it almost impossible to see how you would get into the industry having no connections, nobody in the family being anywhere near it and never meeting anybody that had been on a set.

Ben Wheatley

I genuinely try to make movies I'd want to go and see, movies that are a bit more challenging.

Ben Wheatley

Lots of crime films are about work. Free Fire could have been about a company of plumbers doing pipe-fixing and stuff. But the plumbing film is not so exciting.

Ben Wheatley

I think a big part of my job is to make an atmosphere on set and have an attitude that it's about experimentation, and you can't do anything wrong. It's not about judgment, it's not about me kicking over a chair and storming onto set and acting stuff out and telling people to copy what I do. That is a style of directing some people have, but I don't understand it.

Ben Wheatley

Top 27 Quotes & Sayings by Ben Wheatley

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