William Fichtner Quotes

The great thing about an independent film is that you're too busy working, and you're too busy hoping to God to get it done.

The problem with doing a schlocky or big budget studio film is that it wouldn't actually be fun for me. It wouldn't be exciting.

I don't think of the 'indie film world' as this cohesive kind of world anyhow. It's so disparate: all these different filmmakers seeking financing from many different sources to make different kinds of movies. It's hard to pinpoint a trend, really.

Indie movies can be a lot more stressful than studio pictures. The stakes are just as high whether you're talking $3 million or $40 million.

If you do an indie film, where it's like, "We don't have a lot of money to give you, but we'll really give you a lot of freedom," that's really a luxury to have in this business. At least for myself, because I'm still kind of earning my acting credibility.

I feel like I'm long overdue for a "one for me" movie, so I've got two low-budget indy personal things I'm working on.

Yeah, it was always a low-budget passion project. It's my directing debut. I've always wanted to make an improv movie because I have so much experience in it, but it's not a big studio movie. It was an experiment that turned out better than I thought.

I think people are willing to take more of a risk on an indie film, about character, etc...but at the same time, when I work on projects that are substantially bigger, in a way they do feel small. Even though the catering is way better and we actually have someone shooting with real film.... The budgets are bigger but the story still feels small, like an indie film.

If you want to be in Hollywood, and if you want to make big international movies, you have to be able to make movies that don't have anything to do with social status or politics. To limit yourself to just do these little small movies and call it black cinema itself is a mistake to me.

Saw' was a film that James Wan and I came up with back in Australia and we were just hoping anyone, literally, anyone would make that film and if nobody would give us the money we were going to shoot it in a garage somewhere.

'Eagle vs Shark' is a little film I could take risks with and make mistakes on.

I follow my inspiration to wherever it goes. I do want the fans to feel the fun and excitement about it, and I like for people to be able to make their own interpretations about my work.

I feel that if you want to make films, you have to be willing to make it without a fee. You get a deferment, I guess.

Even with a big budget, you can make a niche film.

With Halloween, the director was this genius wonder boy who was the writer, director, producer, along with his girlfriend. They were this team, and they were making this small movie, and it was just completely different, but it was really inspiring and a lot of fun, and also allowed me to do a lot of improvisation, because they just depended on the girls to expand their parts to bring some real life, being girls ourselves, to the characters.

Success is being artistically fulfilled and happy. You can't control how people see your movie or how much money it makes...and the same thing with music. When I'm writing a song or I'm in the studio, those memories, that's epic.

I consider myself an independent filmmaker.

I had success early on where I'm able to try to keep it fun, and I don't have to do things just for the sake of making a living, which a lot of my musician friends don't have that luxury of course.

I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And when a good business partner supports them from the side, it creates great synergy. When someone's trying to do both, I think the music gets bad and the business gets bad, too.

Sometimes it's hard to say no. Ultimately, if you stick to your guns, you have the career that you want. Don't get me wrong. I love a good payday and I'll do films for fun. But ultimately my main goal is to do good work. If it doesn't pay well, so be it.

I had a great time working with Denis [Villeneuve] and the whole group. It was a very different kind of a part [in Story of Your Life] than I've played in a while. But I had great fun; and yes, it was really nice not to have to answer to anybody about that.

Everything I've done hasn't worked out - you know, some things aren't as great as others - but I'm having so much fun, who cares? Isn't that what an artist is supposed to do? We're trying to change the world. Otherwise, why be an artist? You want to shake people up and make 'em think.

I want to have the illegitimate child of independent film making and the budget to make it. That's my aspiration.

There's so much confidence and freedom that comes from that way of doing things. Robert Altman and Alan Rudolph make the set the place to be. It's fun. It's a kind of creative freedom that's really inspiring. Altman loved actors so much. He was a great mentor for me, really.

The independent films are really where I kind of come from and where I feel comfortable. It's never been about the blockbusters and making a huge tonne of money. It's always been about wanting to do projects about the things that I think are important to be out there.