Michael Douglas Quotes

I've done a couple of movies for scale, and it's the only way to get a lot of these independent movies made. The actors negotiate deals where they're given just enough money to live on during the filming, but then they participate in the back-end. If the movie suddenly makes a gazillion dollars, we'll participate in that profit.

I get called to do a lot of labors of love... independent films on very small budgets. If I have the time and if the project speaks to me, it's better than sitting around, right?

I did a few independent films, but there is no money in them.

Where the material is, that's where you go. I'm a workman: I go to work. I've done movies for nothing, literally nothing; I did 'Last I Heard' for next to nothing.

TV is sort of the only way to go for an actress my age to make a decent salary; with independent films, you just can't.

Practically, I am interested in television because it keeps me home and it's fast, and I exist in independent films mostly, and you don't get paid for those, or you don't get paid enough.

For me, the movies I like are all independent. And getting an independent feature made, it's like you get down to the selling organs part, and it just loses some of its luster.

I tell stories so only the independents do that and they don't pay you that much. I'd rather do TV or an HBO movie.

Most of my movies are indies. The best scripts I can find are independent films. But I love big-budget movies, I love craft services!

OK, I wasn't as successful as, say, Julia Roberts, but I'd spent years in a very respectable career, some big American films but a host of other smaller, really exciting, maybe experimental films, being paid rubbish but working with fine people, that was what I thought I was known for.

My son tried to work in films and he ultimately gave it up, he finally couldn't make a living, he couldn't support himself. He worked all the time and he didn't make enough money to have a house, have an apartment.

I still, by and large, make low-budget Australian films.

I don't think people understand when you say you are making a micro-budget film that you are getting paid no money.

The kind of films I want to make are struggling to get made. And if they are getting made, they're getting made on shoestring budgets with not enough time.

You really don't get paid in these independent movies, no matter how many people see them.

Small films, made on shoe-string budget work in big centres, and for that a substantial amount of budget should be set aside for marketing.

The first time I was paid was with 'The Lobster,' because with the Greek films, we just had to pay ourselves - work for free while making commercials in order to survive.

You cannot make a living doing independent films.

I come from a background of independent films.

My main income came from failed movie and TV options.

I'm talking a lot on financing in the Masterclass and I know what it means to because I had to finance my first films, all of them, and I earned my money as a welder in a steel factory doing night shifts while I was still in high school during the day.

I was doing progressively smaller movies in England, after Harry Potter... to the point where I was doing nine-day shoots for, like, 20p and a packet of Space Invaders. And then this happened. So I'm not just another actor who's around and jobbing. When you hire me for a job, you're hiring.

I think it's all independent films. There aren't any! If they were looking for me when I was making Polyester, then it'd be perfect, but they're not. I'm not looking for that. TV is much bigger and better now; far more people see it.

When I started, every film got a full theatrical distribution. Today, almost no low budget films, maybe two or three a year, will get a full theatrical distribution. We've been frozen out of that, which means they must be aware that for a full theatrical distribution it either has to be something like Saw or some exploitation film of today or an extremely well made personal film.

I enjoy doing independent films more, only because there's more freedom. There's not as many cooks tampering with what you are trying to do.