Tommy Lee Jones Quotes

I'm not an actor that tends to care. I don't ask 'Is this a close up? Is this a master? Is this a wide? What are you doing? If I look up and notice the camera I go 'Oh, it's a big one today, must be an IMAX.' And that's kinda it for me because it doesn't affect what I'm doing.

I remember in Shallow Grave I remember a few times when we'd only have to do one take. But when you did have to do more than one, you'd build on the one you'd done.

When you're making movies you've got to get obsessive.

Even with college, the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I wanted to major in film. I want to take screenwriting classes and learn more about behind the scenes stuff, because I love people like Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig who are able to write a lot of their own material and be so involved in everything they do.

I really love to act; I love everything about it. I've never had this addiction to being known. I mean, sure, if you go into acting, there's part of you that is saying, 'I want attention' but I was brought up to work to deserve attention, and it is the work, not the trappings that are important.

People don't realize how long hours are when you're shooting a movie.

It's a whole other way of working when you work in films: You know exactly the arc of your character.

Any acting job that I ever got, I always treated it like I was a neophyte; I didn't know what I was doing, and I was going to work just as hard as I do on my stand-up.

I did a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his skill level was eons ahead of mine. It was really more like an abattoir - he just slaughtered my character over and over again.

For a director, the most challenging scenes are the dialogue scenes.

I love directing.

Any actor working a long time should know how a shot is set up, where to place themselves, how to handle the lines. I'm a member of the crew, like the best boy, the electrician. What I'm good at is making eyes at the camera.

When I'm working on a movie, I will make any sacrifice to finish it.

I have definitely been curious and involved in the process; even as a young actor. I was always looking at where the camera was, what story it was telling. And as my experience grew, I wanted to know even more.

Working on a film, the setup for an action sequence takes a long time, and we need to shoot the scene many times to get different angles.

I started as a straight actor. I'd go onstage, and I'd think, 'Wow, this is the only thing I want to work really hard at. I will rehearse fifty times on a single scene; I don't care - I'll do it again.'

Going to directing wasn't a reaction away from acting as much as it was a move towards something I always wanted to do. Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in the camera and how it worked and why one director would place it in this part of the room and then another would place it in that part of the room.

When I'm directing a movie, nothing else matters.

Chemistry exists or it doesn't, and I think casting is a very underappreciated component of filmmaking.

I need to grow as an actor. The wonderful thing is you never stop learning, and as my only interest is trying to perfect what I do, it's wonderful because I'll never succeed, so I'll have to keep working.

I had the benefit of watching good people show me what it really is to be an actor - the day in and day out of it.

I learned a lot about filmmaking from my dad. Starting when I was a child, I would listen to my dad as an actor, writer, director and producer talking about films - you know what the treatment would be in the opening, in the middle, and in the ending.

In a big movie, like Ridley Scott's 'Kingdom of Heaven,' where I had a small part, you realize your task is to support everything that has to come together. You're just a piece of the puzzle. You're the guy in the hat.

Acting is completely different from the standup world. You have these 12- or 14-hour days, but you have a great time doing it. It's like hanging out with your friends.

The script is so important... Even if you have a huge entourage or big lighting trucks, the most important thing is the space between the actor and the camera.