A Quote by Nico Muhly

The score is doing a lot of work. It's like Wagner. It's like a yak carrying people. — © Nico Muhly
The score is doing a lot of work. It's like Wagner. It's like a yak carrying people.
I think I have a pretty good ear. I mean, even just starting with, like, Austin Powers, where I did young Robert Wagner. People were, like, "How do you imitate Robert Wagner? What does he sound like? What does that even involve?".
There are vivid memories from my childhood-what we had to go through because of low wages and the conditions, basically because there was no union. I suppose if I wanted to be fair I could say that I'm trying to settle a personal score. I could dramatize it by saying that I want to bring social justice to farm workers. But the truth is that I went through a lot of hell, and a lot of people did. If we can even the score a little for the workers then we are doing something. Besides, I don't know any other work I like to do better than this. I really don't.
My work is my language and I don't discuss it very easily. It's difficult for me to verbalize my feelings, or to intellectualize my work. In fact, it used to annoy me when Ansel Adams and Paul Strand yak-yak-yakked about what photography meant, and I told them so.
There's a lot of people who don't understand the touring and the party scene and it's like, go to bed late, wake up early, drive for hours, play a show, meet crazy drunk people and all that stuff. I would rather be doing that than like McDonalds or something like that though. It's definitely fun but it's a lot of work.
Hustle is simple - it's doing the work. A lot of people like to talk about it, a lot of people have ideas, but it's difficult to actually do the work.
A lot of people are like, "You're doing commercials?" And I honestly feel like those Sierra Mist commercials are better than a lot of sitcoms I get offered. It's hard work, and I'm paid a lot of money, and I do it because I love the soda.
People act like art is a white thing - or not for people of colour - when, really, so much culture and art comes from people of colour. I want everyone to get into what I am doing. So sometimes I don't like to work just in an art context because it feels like a lot of people aren't going to see it. I like it to be a part of everyday life.
I try to think of acting in terms of thinking and doing. People think of it as, "Oh, let's get inside this guy." They think that acting is being, or feeling, or emoting. It's as much doing. One of the first things you do as an acting student is ask, "Can you say words and do a task at the same time, like sweep a floor?" You get to watch the human condition, and there's always a "doing" aspect of it. This couple, they're carrying backpacks, where are they going? Students? Or are they carrying instruments? It stimulates the imagination. So acting is doing ... and I forget how we got off on that.
I'm here to score a lot of goals. It's my specialty, that's what I've been brought here to do, and I want to score plenty ; like I did with Barcelona. And here, there's every reason to think I can do it.
Most films don't have a budget for a background score, but it is the toughest job to do. We work like donkeys. And usually we get only around a month to do a score.
I would love playing with a guy like Porzingis who can score, stretch the floor, who can do a lot, a lot of different things. But I could see myself doing some pretty good things with other teams, too.
There is a temptation for an actor to editorialize what they're doing. And you can't do that with Pinter. It's almost like a musical score. His lines are so specific, but they can mean different things to different people, like an alternating current.
I like stand-up. But I'd also like a family and house and a yard. I want to work with a lot of people, have colleagues; and on good film sets, there's people there that work with the same people for years and years. I love that collaborative spirit in that medium. Comedy is a lot more solitary.
Sometimes it felt like I was carrying pieces of human flesh back home with me, not negatives. It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed.
I fed my yak on my spare Cadbury chocolate 21,0000ft up Everest. It was a blonde, very sweet female yak. I made it my pet after that.
Honestly, I don't look at it as work because I have way too much fun on set to actually classify it as work. I know a lot of people who are like, 'Man, acting's so much work.' And I'm like, 'No, it's not. I'm having fun.' And I want to keep doing that. I don't ever want to give up acting.
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