Johnny Galecki Quotes

You've got to find a way to relate to people. I just did an improvised episode for Joe Swanberg's new Netflix show, 'Easy,' and it was a huge learning curve for me and taught me so much about fear and courage. But when you're present in the moment, the audience, it's incomparable.

As I get more confident as a filmmaker, I don't need to prepare so much in advance. I can trust that I and my team can come up with a solution.

I moved to Chicago in the early 1990s and I studied improvisation there. I learned some rules that I try to apply still today: Listen. Say yes. Live in the moment. Make sure you play with people who have your back. Make big choices early and often. Don't start a scene where two people are talking about jumping out of a plane. Start the scene having already jumped. If you're scared, look into your partner's eyes — you will feel better.

You have to be able to feel like you can play way outside of the box. If you're with a great filmmaker and someone you can trust, that's encouraged, and Seth was that kind of filmmaker and co-star.

The thing about improvisation is that it's not about what you say. It's listening to what other people say. It's about what you hear.

Yeah, improvising only really works 100% when you're with somebody.

When you're playing the same dirty dozen night after night, the moments that keep it fresh are those when you just let go and trust everyone.

You can't be controlling in improv.

Improv training allows you to get out of your head a little bit and take more risks, which is something I would like to continue to improve upon.

You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth. People who feel like they're being listened to feel accepted and appreciated. They feel like they're being taken seriously and what they say really matters.

When I'm working with improv people, I give them the green light to just bring it and try things.

People unconsciously know when you are not listening to them. Then they say 'No' to you.

The lifelong goal of an improviser is to listen to what the other person is saying, taking it in, and responding.

It's like, the more you commit, the happier the animators are; if you're at all iffy and concerned, then it doesn't free them up to do as much fun stuff, so you have to just go for it and, again, trust the people around you and not be seemingly guarded and numb. Throw caution to the wind a bit.

The way you build trust with your team is around super-clear communication in that instant when they say, 'I will be sad if you don't do X.' You have to say, 'We're not going to do X, and here's why, and believe me, you'll be much sadder later if I let you go do it and you spend a bunch of time on it and nothing ever happens.'

When you have somebody writing or acting for you, you have to be free to have them hate you so you can get your ideas across without worrying.

With Fincher, you can take chances and try things. And what happens is that any pretension and preparation you've done, all the square, intellectual work, you can't keep that up for 40 takes. It breaks down, and new things start popping up. This, for me, is the most exciting thing about film-making.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

In our case, we have no script. So the only people we can work with are people who have been working with us in the past, and they know we are going to do something; it's kind of a trust.

The rules of improvisation apply beautifully to life. Never say no - you have to be interested to be interesting, and your job is to support your partners.

Without trust, the most essential element of innovation - conflict - becomes impossible.

I think the key to improv is always listening. It's embracing. It's positivity. It's hearing things and not shutting them down.

I love working with actors who will just go, 'Oh O.K., let's try it and see where it goes,' and 'Let's see what we can discover.'

Our approach is more the jazz approach, where you learn to play your instrument as well as you can, develop your craft, and then communicate with each other. That's the focus, not trying to give some message or entertain or have a good light show or whatever.

If you listen, people will tell you exactly what they want - whether it's a business relationship or a consumer relationship.