Dirk Benedict Quotes

Film is much more of a brand business, whereas on Broadway, you can do complete unknowns and have hits.

Hollywood movies are run on fear and they don't want to make bold choices. They, generally, speaking want to keep things status quo. That's not really interesting for me.

The film business is absurd. Stars don't last very long. It's much more interesting to be a proper actor.

I think a lot of Hollywood is in retreat right now trying to figure out how to make money and make the safest bets.

But my sense in talking to people when I travel is that the film business is not that dissimilar from a lot of other businesses.

This film business, perhaps more so in America than in Europe, has always been about young sexuality. It's not true of theatre, but in America, film audiences are young. It's not an intellectual cinema in America.

Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year.

Radio stinks. The stations are making a lot of money, but they just aren't taking chances.

In terms of the movie business, being in a 'Lord of the Rings' has given me more interesting options as work.

Part of the reason why so many actors lose the plot when they go over to America is that they become part of an industry, so that's why they don't want to play weak, bad or vulnerable guys - because that's not sellable; that diminishes their profit margin.

Well, as we built the business in the 1990's, as I said, I enjoyed that.

Lana Turner was adorable and funny. Jimmy Stewart was such a nice person. I quickly realized that if you're not a nice person, you're not going to last in this business. I mean, once your box office starts to drop off, like Veronica Lake, they'll get rid of you fast.

I turn up in Los Angeles every now and then, so I can get some big money films in order to finance my smaller money films.

I think feature film can be quite conservative, because you have to now get audiences to come out, and it's quite a hard thing to do. Of course, television can be conservative too.

As somebody who makes his living in the movie business and wants to contribute to it, I think that the best chance I have of doing that is just consistently working with great directors.

Hollywood is the backdrop of my family, and I know that the movie business is incredibly cruel as you get older.

I sensed my chance and embraced the telecom business. I started marketing telephones, answering/fax machines under the brand name Beetel, and the company picked up really fast.

That's the way this business works: if your movies do well at the box office, you will be offered more movies. It doesn't matter if you're a nice guy or you're a prick. If your movies do well, there's a job waiting for you in Hollywood. It's not any more complicated than that.

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.

Jerry Bruckheimer has made millions of dollars producing propaganda.

Every one says: 'Listen, I'd love to reinvest. I'd love to hire people. But I have no idea what this healthcare bill is going to do to my bottom line. I have no idea what this financial reform bill is going to do... I'm not going to step out a limb and do any of those until I know what this government is going to do to me.'

All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting.

The entertainment business hasn't had a new idea in years.

If it weren't for received ideas, the publishing industry wouldn't have any ideas at all.

The film business was a great lesson in business combat and what it takes to survive.