Matthew Lawrence Quotes

It is quite surreal having a film made about your life. The whole process of turning real life into drama is interesting in itself, but even more so when it is your own life being put into the narrative forge.

You don't have to have a true story to make a true story movie.

I am interested in biographical stories. Seldom are good biopics like 'Maha Nati' being made.

Whenever Hollywood gets involved with real life events, certain liberties have to be taken.

You are always invested in a film, but there is always a different feeling you get when you are portraying a character that is based on real life and you are re-telling events that actually took place.

History opens up new worlds to film-makers all the time.

I really think the biopic thing so rarely works, because people's lives don't have a dramatic shape that can be satisfying.

The great thing about using the past is that it gives you the most colossal freedom to invent. The research is necessary, of course, but no one writes a novel to dramatically illustrate what everybody already knows.

I like documentaries because there's nothing to nitpick or criticize about scenes if they aren't just right. It's about honesty and real-life circumstances coming out. Granted it can be swayed by how people tell that story, but overall, I like it because it is true.

In the future, everybody is going to be a director. Somebody's got to live a real life so we have something to make a movie about.

The teller of a mirthful tale has latitude allowed him. We are content with less than absolute truth.

I've read the 'Public Enemies' script and, no, it's not 100 percent historically accurate. But it's by far the closest thing to fact Hollywood has attempted, and for that, I am both excited and quietly relieved.

I always like when things are loosely based on real events. That always makes it more interesting because there's a lot of research you can do.

I think it's fair to ask how truthful a film is as opposed to how factual it is.

It's a very weird thing, making a true story, because you need your freedom, as filmmakers, to do what you need to do.

If a film is based on a true story and you don't use anyone's name, you can do what you like.

When I was in college, I did sort of want to be a journalist. Being an actor, you kind of have the same interest. You go into a story, and you tell it from your point of view for people who aren't there. That's what an actor does with a character. But the real life is more more interesting.

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

Historians have to deal with facts and they are committed to the facts. The trouble is that facts are imperfect. The novelist comes up with an imaginary structure. This is not what happened. It is what could have happened. And sometimes this brings more understanding …

There’s dramatic license, which is necessary or nothing’s fun, and historical truth, which is necessary or nothing’s understood.

What is truth? What is a true story? Who is telling the truth, and what is truth in this world today?

You take some creative license when you make a movie, and things can be a little bit different.

Every time you do a true story - and I've done a few - you have to look in the mirror and say, 'That's close enough. I'm comfortable with this.' You're always going to compress time; you're going to change the order of things. But I don't think you want to tell a big lie. You want to think that you're embracing the truth.

People say I make up wild stories. But all I have to do is write down stuff that really happens.

Sometimes the facts can get in the way of the telling of a good story. But they don't get in the way of the truth.