Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Mark Duplass

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American director Mark Duplass.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Mark Duplass

Mark David Duplass is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass he started film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed the films The Puffy Chair (2005), Baghead (2008), Cyrus (2010), Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012). Duplass played the role of Pete Eckhart in the FX television series The League (2009–2015). He was also one of the stars of Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) with Aubrey Plaza.

Nobody should be working 18 hours a day for a whole year or any period of time.
We built a business for ourselves just out of hard work, and I think people really want to hear from us about that.
I would say if you have a dream - and whether that is you want to be some sort of artist, or you want to start a start-up or a business, anything that very much feels like it's uniquely yours and you may not be able to get traction going through traditional channels - the way to do it is to build it brick by brick on your own in microsteps.
I'm not someone who feels that unless I am anxious or depressed, there will be no creative drive. My greatest desire in the world is that my desperation goes away, and I can be happy.
'The One I Love' came out in theaters for the enthusiasts and did a chunk of business on VOD. But when it started streaming on Netflix, it exploded. Same thing with 'Safety Not Guaranteed.'
I consistently go to therapy and work on this one issue. I've devoted an hour every two weeks to ask, 'How do I be a workaholic, do what we love to do, and not die of a heart attack, destroy myself and my family, and keep my friends?'
I'm really excited about public libraries that are redefining themselves as free learning centers. — © Mark Duplass
I'm really excited about public libraries that are redefining themselves as free learning centers.
In particular, what I loved about 'Creep' and 'The One I Love' was the combination of naturalism, horror, and comedy that felt kind of new and fun.
At the risk of saying you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie: you should make a self-indulgent film for your first movie.
When you're improvising, it's fun to find something that you can lean on that is similar to your life experience. In my opinion, that's very helpful.
The only thing darker than 'Overboard' is 'Micki & Maude,' the bigamy comedy from 1984.
How do you say no to doughnuts?
You know, I watched the original 'Same Time, Next Year' on DVD about ten times this year, and I cried all ten times.
As the death of the middle class of film has happened, it has been re-birthed in television.
When you make a black-and-white movie with two people in it in 2016, you're taking a swing at something.
I'll do any kind of movie, as long as it's a good version of it.
The realm of making microbudget stuff will always be totally in our control. Most of the time, we just pay for those out of pocket. Then there is stuff that's too expensive for us to pay for, and we want partners on, like 'Togetherness' and 'Animals' and some of our original Netflix movies.
'Somewhere in Time' is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. It's super melodrama. — © Mark Duplass
'Somewhere in Time' is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. It's super melodrama.
If you're locked to the words on the script, as good as those scripted words are, if you didn't have the time to rehearse them correctly or if the perceived dynamic between the actors is different from what the writer imagined, and you're not allowed to stray from that, you're going to have a stilted scene.
I question every move. I'm constantly second-guessing myself.
I think that 'Room 104' offered us an organic opportunity to tell all kinds of stories with all kinds of protagonists.
They're each on separate coasts but I think that the deep Maine woods shares some similarities to the Pacific Northwest.
I want 'Like Brothers' to answer young kids who ask, 'How could I possibly become a filmmaker?' This book will step that out for you.
The challenge for me as a parent of two girls is to establish enough structure in the house so that things don't go haywire... but at the same time, as a dominant male figure in their life, let them know they can topple the king.
Not all movies are movies you want to spend $14 on - and not all movies are movies you want to spend $10 on for ultra VOD, or even $6.99 on renting.
You're taught - consciously or sub-consciously - to make an indie so you can get through that terrible process and get to Hollywood. I realized when I got there, 'Oh, no; I think I'm better over here.'
When we saw the first cut of 'Wild Wild Country,' it was like, Wow.
George Saunders is the funniest. He makes me laugh in the way I want to laugh - with so much empathy and deep understanding of people. He illuminates things and people I've never thought about - and I've dedicated my life to the study of people and their idiosyncrasies. He is light years ahead.
I'm interested to see what happens to Spike Lee with limited resources, you know? I love Spike Lee's movies. But you know what? I kinda liked his movies when he used to scramble and fight more for them.
I think 'Cyrus' has a lot of fat in it. It was a $7 million movie. If you're going to make a movie with famous people, you don't necessarily need to spend 7 million dollars. Make it for less than that, and you'll be able to sell it and make a ton more than that, and everybody shares the profits.
I never thought about branding when we were starting our production company.
I selfishly like a lot of first-time directors because they over-prepare, they're super eager, and there's very little ego.
Obviously we know Bill Hader is funny and charming, but my question is, can he do raw humanity and naturalism? I think so.
I played acoustic guitar so intensely, for so long - for nine hours a day as a 10-year-old, writing songs through the night, on tour constantly from when I was 19 - that I destroyed my arms and shoulders in the process.
When you're writing a 25-minute episode that can be anything, sometimes you just start with a character, and you let them walk into the room. Then you let your instinct guide you. That's how we made art when we were 15 years old. And that's so fun to us.
We've done things that are faster at times, but it's definitely different when we direct all the episodes because it's like we have to write them all, then shoot them all, then edit them all. So we have to just get ahead on those scripts basically.
Going to the theater, spending tons of money, people are losing money doing that. I'm really interested in my kinds of movies being seen as many people as possible on a TV.
Jay [Duplass] and I normally just sit around and people watch, and we talk about things that are happening in our lives, or with people that we've met. That's the soup from which our movies usually come from.
I have a Google alert for myself - it's pure vanity.
Making movies that are really cheap and that can be owned and that you maintain your control of is really exciting.
There's no excuse not to make films on weekends with friends.
Somewhere in Time is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. Its super melodrama. — © Mark Duplass
Somewhere in Time is in the top-five cheesiest movies ever made. Its super melodrama.
My favorite thing to do is put my headphones on and cruise around the old neighborhoods.
I'm fortunate enough to act in a TV show that makes me a lot of money so I can pay for my own movies. I don't have to wait for anybody and that's more of what I like doing. But I still think that you don't have to be connected in the industry to make your movie. You just have to write something that is meant to be made cheaply.
As an actor, when you walk into a room to audition, you get five minutes with a casting director, who doesn't even look at you, most of the time.
I really like Jason Blum a lot. We're friends, and while we make wildly disparate films, we share a philosophy about low-budget filmmaking, about taking chances on young filmmaking, taking risks and obliterating our salary so we can make something cheaply and if it wins everyone wins big.
We allow the actors to do whatever they need to do or say to accomplish the goals that they want to accomplish.
I really believe in constantly trying to find and support new ways of watching independent art, because the old ways are not working as well.
My wife and I are like twins and that is a great and a terrible thing for a marriage. It makes for the most comfortable thing in the world to be truly known and loved, but also makes for a lot of conflict and that's how we roll in my house.
Just being able to make exactly what I want with my brother and a lot of my best friend and to have a place like HBO that not only lets you do that, but supports you and puts up billboards in support of it, and really puts it out there for you. That's not something I get a lot in the independent film world where everybody's pinching pennies and nervous about whether it's going to make money or not.
"Repulsion" for me was a really big movie where I was like, "OK, technically there's nothing scary going on here but I'm kind of terrified." Something so tiny was devolving this whole world. I guess I've always been obsessed with what I call the "epically small" in cinema, and that's how one tiny, little weird thing can just explode everything.
If we have anything to offer, as filmmakers and as TV makers now, it's this ability to feel as close to a documentary as you can get in a narrative form.
My wife and I have been together for many years and that, to me, is like endlessly fascinating and endlessly confusing how to sustain all of the excitement from the front of our relationship, valuing that versus the comfort and knowing that she knows all of my flaws and still loves me. It's great, but certainly not as exciting as it was day one.
For us, performance is everything. If we can get great actors in there who like us, and we really like, we feel pretty confident that we can make a movie work. — © Mark Duplass
For us, performance is everything. If we can get great actors in there who like us, and we really like, we feel pretty confident that we can make a movie work.
Well, I'll be honest with you, sometimes you don't know you're playing a moment that's going to be in a montage. Sometimes it's a scene that didn't work out the way you hoped it would be and ends up in a montage.
I'm a narrative-minded actor. I'm thinking of the story. I'm not worried about whether the camera is on the right side of my face, or where the camera is. I'm just going for the story.
I feel like, if I'm being honest with myself, my biggest skill set is as a writer 'cause I can do that quickly and I'm really grounded in story structure. Part of my success as an actor, is that I know story well. Part of my success as a director, is how well I know story. Same thing, as a producer. It all begins and ends with me as a story creator. But, I love doing it all.
No one can stop you from doing exactly what you want to do. If you can accept that the cavalry won't come, and if you can be the cavalry, it gives you a chance to be happy.
I am not afraid to admit, though slightly ashamed that I Google myself and I see people writing things about me and I get really proud and happy.
We've shot with babies and kids and it was tough. It's not easy. It looks tangential, but it is not.
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