The Great Acting Blog: “Some Words From The Great Actor-Producer, John Cassavetes”
For those who are worried that producing work would cost them their relentless focus on acting, that they would be spreading themselves too thin – here’s some words of wisdom from one of the greatest actor-producers of them all, John Cassavetes. For those who don’t know his work, he went out and made his pictures  not to build a career, but to follow the truth he felt within himself. As he said, working on commercial pictures was causing him to lose confidence in his innermost thoughts, so he switched to making his own art house films. Further, he didn’t wait for somebody to give him permission, he just went out and did it. And in so doing, he created one of the most important bodies of work in cinema.
Here are some words from him, which may provoke thoughts and/or inspire….
1. “Say what you are. Not what you would like to be. Not what you have to be. Just say what you are. And what you are is good enough.”
2. “You can fail in films because you don’t have talent, or you have too much humility, or you lack ferociousness. I’m a gangster! If I want something I’ll grab it.”
3. “As an artist, I feel we must try many things – but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.”
4. “I’m lost by life. I don’t know anything about life. If I make a movie, I don’t even understand why I’m making the movie. I just know that there’s something there. Later on, we all get to know what it’s about through the opinion of others. If you make a film, it might as well be as important as be nonsense. You can’t go for ten cents and expect to come up with a million. You have to go for everything.”
5. “I won’t make shorthand movies because I won’t manipulate audiences into assuming quick, manufactured truths.”
Finally, if you don’t know the films of John Cassavetes, I sincerely recommend them. Especially since he created an actor’s cinema, where he pushed his actors to the brink, and some truly extraordinary performances resulted.
Check-out -: The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, Faces and Opening Night.
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