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It's a really cool sequence, ... With all those effects, yeah, it's pretty ...
We have a similar perspective, ... We're total hams.
First, I was skeptical about a sequel, ... Even when we promoted the first one and that question came up -- would I sign up for the next one? -- I said, 'No, there is no next one.'
He admitted Miramax wouldn't make the film with Johnny and that I was their choice. They thought Johnny was too weird and didn't have any box-office clout
We just had a three-day junket, and I'll do a few more talk shows in New York.
Maybe through some fault of his own, Ben hasn't made the greatest choices in the last few years
That definitely helps. I think things can get magnified exponentially when you have two celebrities in a situation. Suddenly the interest it's not just like twice the interest, it's four, eight times depending on the celebrity.
It was a lot more fun to work that way
[Despite the hit to his ego, Damon took the role, eager for an opportunity to work with Gilliam.] He's definitely the type of man who is open to ideas, ... He also likes to gild the lily as much as possible.
It would be a dream to work with someone like Ang
I would have played any role in this movie just to work with him, ... He's got the greatest energy, and it's totally infectious.
It's a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales through the eyes of Terry Gilliam, ... This film was actually an excuse for Terry to create an entire world. He does this so well with wide-angle lenses. Terry's frames are so densely packed with information that you can't take it all in the first time.
It's my final shot at giving up. He was recommended by so many people
The fact that Terry was directing the movie sold it to me
They were really influential guys -- they unearthed all of these stories and collected them and wrote them down and suddenly everyone got very proud of their heritage; and then there's our movie
It's about what everyone else is doing at the table, and you can figure out what somebody's got based on how well you read them.
There is stuff that I do where I am just, like, 'Oh man, this is brutal and why did I do that and why did I make that choice and what am I doing?' ... This time I just -- I don't know, it just seemed pretty honest when I saw it.
People forget that Ben is a terrific actor.
I've never seen somebody that famous, ever, ... More than Robin Williams walking down the street in Boston, this guy would walk down the street in Italy and grandmothers would be hanging out of their windows yelling, 'Fiorello, Fiorello.
[Working with Scorsese] was like the honor of my life, ... I'm so busy on stuff that I so believe in that it is hard to stop and smell the roses. But I love to work, I really love to work, so I'm digging it.
Our mannerisms were the same in that we both wanted to be really cowardly.
Once I threw a soda can at them and it was full, ... But I have to say that New York is great. I don't even get followed anymore. It's more like some construction worker leaning out a building screaming, 'Hey Matt, what the hell are you doing here?' That's actually fun.
We were totally free to hang out anywhere and no one noticed us. We were not even worth a dot of ink on a page in the local newspaper. It was great to just go out and have a beer with no major hoopla.
I feel like Buckner walking back into Shea.
The show was really good this year and yet we had horrible, horrible ratings, ... When we were in conversation with Bravo, they were like, 'Look, the show is good,' we got the best reviews of any show on television, and they said, 'But there's a certain number,' and they showed us the number and I'm not a TV guy, but they said, 'Look, this number, no matter what, we can't bring the show back. ... This is just terrible, we can't justify keeping it on air.'
In our own defense, we thought we were meeting with the head of Touchstone Pictures for a movie deal. We just never questioned why the head of Touchstone would want to meet with two unknown high school students
Right before The Bourne Identity came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year.
I want to do is a character-driven porn movie. It's all going to be about characters, and the porn's gonna grow all out of the character's and it's going to serve as character development.
The real Brothers Grimm were scholars; they were these amazing heroes in Germany who discovered this folklore and shone a light on it, and made Germans proud of their heritage
But it's rare, the three out of three. I think for me, 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' had a great script, a great director, and a great role
At that time they were thinking of themselves as barbarians, ... Suddenly the Brothers Grimm came along and said, 'No, our history is beautiful, our fairytales are beautiful.' They were influential people who rose to positions of real prominence in society. Jacob became a politician, they were famous collaborators; they lived together with their families until they were old men working together, sharing, like, a little desk.
I think every day we would say as we wrapped [finished filming ] 'well, we've never done that before.' From licking toads to being strapped to ladders in an actual burning forest. Every day something new and bizarre would happen.
If I wear my Boston hat around town, I will also get, 'Hey Matt, screw you. We're going to beat your team.
It's a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales, through the eyes of Terry Gilliam, ... This film was actually an excuse for Terry to create an entire world. He does this so well with wide-angle lenses. Terry's frames are so densely packed with information that you can't take it all in the first time.
The Mickey Mouse Club.
As for poker, I've stayed away from that, even though when I was in Vegas for Ocean's Eleven, I would get accosted by these guys begging me to play. They just want to take my money. They see me, think "actor" and see some easy money.”
When you sign up to do a film with Terry, you're basically signing up to be one of 11 elements in a shot, ... You could have a great take, but if the geese aren't right in the background or the smoke isn't coming up the chimney, Terry will do another take.
Even though, by their own admission, the people who voted for that script didn't think it was the best script, it probably was the smartest movie to choose because it does, in an odd way, give the project the greatest chance of surviving, because the movie might actually make money.
Yeah, that's a really good way to put it, ... Those are words to live by.
I'm moving into a time when I might be more violent, ... I could foresee the choice under certain circumstances. There are lines that are crossed and it could get dangerous.
Now in our movie ..
And he should know! ... No, well, Terry had me take tango lessons to prepare for the movie just because I move like such a mook, you know, that he wanted me to be a little more of a dandy and so he thought if I danced that would happen.
When I did the first one I only signed up for the first one 'cause I didn't want to be contractually obligated to do more than one if it wasn't a good experience. And, I'd never done an action movie and I was a little leery of the whole thing
They had to do it quickly and quietly to avoid all the media nonsense. It really is a shame that it's come to the point where celebrities have to sneak around to get married.
Success is not something I've wrapped my brain around. If people go to those movies, then yes, that's true, big-time success. If not, it's much ado about nothing.
I thought it would be impossible for somebody to get that unlucky again. I mean, so much went wrong; they had everything but locusts on 'Quixote,' it was really, really bad luck.
a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales as seen through the eyes of Terry Gilliam in a wild fantasy world only he could create.
It’s completely ridiculous and totally out of our control, ... It’s like, ‘OK, well if it doesn’t work then ultimately you have to claw your way back or not.’ You’ll just kind of fade until another works or doesn’t. I mean. It’s really an insecure bizarre profession.
It's no mistake that jazz is kind of a recurring theme in the movie, ... because I think that's what Ripley's doing -- he's riffing, depending on who his partner is.
I honestly if I get a vacation I'm gonna go and sit on my couch in New York cause that's the one place I haven't been for a very long time.
'It [she] will be a girl,' said Damon in Spanish. The actor has advanced in his classes thanks to his wife, who has dedicated herself to teaching him the language.
The first time I went to meet Terry, I said, 'Why isn't Johnny Depp doing this movie?
If you have two famous people, it's not like [the attention] doubles, ... It grows exponentially, no matter who they are.
Your fate in Hollywood is totally beyond your own control
The movie is really a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales. It's also an excuse for Terry to create an entire world, which is what he does so well. He has his wide-angle lenses and extravagant production design. His frames are so densely packed with information. He directs like no one else.
I looked Terry straight in the eye and he finally confessed
Well, we have similar kinds of ideas about being the lead in a movie, and there are certain things we don't want to be.
It's great to do something like this to support theater, ... I think Boise is a great town. It's really beautiful.
I never wanted to do the same kind of movies over and over anyway, so my theory on it all is I'm just gonna try and dodge the label and keep doing what I am doing.
I think people call him crazy because he's really passionate and energetic and uncompromising, ... and those are qualities you don't really see a lot in Hollywood. It doesn't feel like this bizarre puzzle that only he has the keys to.
It's usually the exact same three things which are, the Scripts, the Director and the Role those are the three things I look for and really any two of them, If I get two of them that's usually enough, but definitely those are the things I look for.
We actually begged him to switch roles because he originally cast us flip-flopped and we both felt like we'd done that before. So we asked him and it's more challenging and more fun for everybody if they're doing stuff a little differently.
This whole hot and cold thing is completely ridiculous and totally beyond an actor's control. It's a really insecure, bizarre profession and it's compounded with the whole celebrity and fame thing.
These actors end up making really safe choices. I never wanted to go that route. If I go down, I'm going down swinging.
For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again.
I think it's still hard for me to turn down work if it's really good because for so many years I was so desperate to get a job and couldn't and so it's kind of an anathema for me to turn down work.
What I have noticed since then is that when some people have gotten to a certain position [in Hollywood], they're afraid to lose it. They protect [their position] like a beachhead. 'God! Don't take this away from me.' And so they start making really safe choices. I don't want to do that. If I go down, I'm going to go down swinging.
It's a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales through the eyes of Terry Gilliam. This film was actually an excuse for Terry to create an entire world. He does this so well with wide-angle lenses. Terry's frames are so densely packed with information that you can't take it all in the first time.
My suspicion would be that it would've been released sooner, but they had so much else going on with their own deals and starting this new company,
This Is Our Youth.
And we didn't even get the Mickey Mouse show gig, which made for a very depressing train ride back home to Boston.
Some people get afraid to lose it, ... They get something and they try and protect it like a beachhead. ’God! Don’t take it away form me.’ And so they start making really safe choices and I don’t want that. If I go down I’m going down swinging.
People who make a living playing poker and in that world, it's not quite as sexy as it sounds.
It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.
Before 'The Bourne Identity' opened, 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' and 'All the Pretty Horses' had been huge bombs, ... I went eight months without getting an offer.
If you see me or Heath (Ledger) in a movie that you don’t like it’s because we made a bad decision, ... There’s no hiding behind, ‘Well, I needed the money. I needed to pay my rent.’
Eventually stardom is going to go away from me. It goes away from everybody and all you have in the end is to be able to look back and like the choices you made.
I said, 'Oh, that's great
I was never that much a focus of interest that I became a 'thing' at an earlier point in my career. I'm aware of having become a 'thing' now, which doesn't give me a lot of pleasure.
I'm not a fan of ( President Bush ), so I let out a big cheer (over West's comments)
I got the call. He wanted me there and I wanted to be there but couldn't make it because it was such a last-minute thing
It's a great sequence
Everyone will be like, 'Ben, it's a comeback!' I'll sit there and say, 'What the f---? A comeback? What are you talking about? The guy has always been great. He never went anywhere.
I don't think it's fair to bemoan our fate, ... I think a movie lives or dies based on its own merit. If it doesn't find an audience in this theatrical release, hopefully down the line it'll be appreciated and Terry will be appreciated for what he's done.
Eventually stardom is going to go away from me.
Ben just didn't want the insanity of media outlets at his wedding. He didn't want a circus
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