A Quote by Michael O'Keefe

Directors, writers, and actors are interested in making movies with me. Producers and movie studio people are not interested in me as they are in Kevin Costner or Tom Cruise. That's just the fact of the matter.
After making 'Secretary,' it was a real shock to me to learn that some directors just aren't interested in what actors have to say. They just don't want to collaborate.
Audiences in every medium are becoming far more savvy. No one goes to watch a Tom Cruise movie any more just because it's starring Tom Cruise. No one gives a toss. Concept is what makes actors raise their game. Everyone's on merit now.
Jennifer to Beth: Ech. I don't like Tom Cruise. Beth to Jennifer: Me neither. But I usually like Tom Cruise movies. Jennifer to Beth: Me too... Huh, maybe I do like Tom Cruise. But I hate feeling pressured to find him attractive. I don't. Beth to Jennifer: Nobody does. It's a lie perpetuated by the American media. Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts. Jennifer to Beth: Men don't like Julia Roberts? Beth to Jennifer: Nope. Her teeth scare them. Jennifer to Beth: Good to know.
I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.
If I have a male protagonist, it's a studio movie, and if it's a female protagonist, it's an indie movie. That's just how it is. It's not about the studios. It's about America and who goes to see movies. Women are interested in men and women, and men aren't interested in the woman's story. They just aren't.
Directing is the last frontier for women in the movie business. We are studio heads, we are producers and we are writers, but we are not directors in any numbers.
What's interesting is that producers, directors and writers tend to typecast me in terms of whatever movie they've seen me in most recently.
To trust other people to keep you safe, it's very difficult ... But when Tom Cruise is there, you just expect that he'll save you. I was like, "Tom. You're Tom Cruise. It's your job to save the day. And the day is me. You need to save it. If I panic, I expect you to be down there."
I was interested in music and making movies about musicians, but my own experiences, and doing what it felt like for me to be a drummer? Nah, I wasn't interested in that.
I'm pretty much a movie-to-movie guy. It's hard for me to multitask so I feel very one-thing-at-a-time oriented and I usually just wait until a movie's done and it's premiered, then just kind of reflect on what I'm interested in my own life and let the movies come to me rather than force them.
On the one hand, you have these huge budget films that cost millions of dollars. They are effects driven, they don't have well known actors in them, and they are making money. Well, some of them are. One the other hand, you have Stallone and Statham, and guys like DeNiro and Pacino, and Costner, who are all trying to make movies about real people. They are interested in character driven projects.
Audiences in every medium are becoming far more savvy. No one goes to watch a Tom Cruise movie any more just because it's starring Tom Cruise.
I don't have any interest in doing superhero franchise movies. I don't connect to the fantastic and I'm not a comic person, it's just not my thing, so I'm not looking in that direction - but ambitious films on a big scale I'm very interested in looking at. I'm interested in reality, I'm interested in people, so it's just about finding a project I'm interested in.
In the early days, some producers and directors saw me in the musical 'Evita' and cast me in their movies. They heard me singing on stage also, but they couldn't translate that into a Hindi movie song.
I just do things that I'm interested in making and work with the people I'm interested in working with, and it's very important for me to maintain the creative control because, otherwise, I just don't want to do it.
The most starstruck I've been is when I met Sol Campbell when he was a Tottenham Hotspur player. I don't get starstruck by actors I work with, because you have some sort of relationship with them. Like, I worked with Tom Cruise [on Interview With The Vampire], so if I saw him again I'd speak to him as an actor. Although he might not be interested in talking to me.
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