Todd Phillips Quotes

Drama is easy. Comedy's hard.

I've grown as a storyteller, and my comedic timing has gotten better.

There's a rhythm and a cadence in a scene, and when an actor understands without any real direction from you, then that's a very valuable gift. And some people get it, and some people don't.

A lot of the time, you're supposed to play to the top of your intelligence, as truthful as possible. But when you're on stage making people laugh, you're still acting. I think it helped me a bunch to go on stage two or three times a week.

You're at the top of your game if you do comedy.

Comedy is something that I'm definitely looking to get into. I had a little taste of it and I do intend on going to classes for it because I think it's a different muscle, and it's hard to find female comedians.

With comedy, I think it's so important, especially in TV, to know and trust what the writers are writing and just have it down.

I love doing comedy. I find comedy quite hard work. Comedy's underrated, I think, by actors, you know? It's difficult to get it right and get it funny. I really enjoy doing it. I kind of wish I'd done it more. I can't complain. I've had a fair crack of the whip.

To be perfectly honest, drama is a lot simpler than comedy.

I think that when you write for stars, I think that you have to be very specific about what they do beautifully and let them bring it to life.

I believe that the story is the most important element of any medium whether it's theater, film, TV.

I'd love to do situation comedy - it's the best job in show business.

Warwick Davies is a cracking actor. The opening scene in the last 'Harry Potter' film, where he plays a captured Griphook, is mesmerising. His pacing is sublime, and the menace and regret he builds into the scene is fantastic.

I find painting a much slower process than comedy, where you can go a mile a minute verbally and hope to God that some of the people out there understand you.

I enjoy the character interplay. Sometimes the audience is not laughing, but smiling, and that is almost just as good because it keeps them ready to laugh.

When I'm directing actors, I often find myself slipping in sports metaphors, like: 'Don't go for the punch line here, just put it up on a T-ball stand so she can hit it out of the park.'

In Australia, I wrote lots of little plays and put them on, and then I worked on a few different TV shows, like the Australian equivalent of 'SNL.' I would write and perform all of my characters.

It's eighty percent script and twenty percent you get great actors. There's nothing else to it.

Drama is more focused, and it reveals itself to you, whereas comedy is just right there when you first read it.

I like language, and in film, language is diluted by the visuals and the music. Theatre is what I was trained for.

What I love about sketch is that the writing of it is idea-based. It's not story-based. It's like, 'This is a behavior, and we're going to write, in a small sample, the funniest way to heighten this behavior.' Sitcoms or movies are about story.

I would love to do comedy, but you have to be phenomenally good. I'm not sure I'm there yet. I can imagine it being so much fun but I don't think I've quite got the gall to go ahead just yet.

A lot of actors, we aren't that special; you get a well-written scene, and it's virtually actor-proof.

Some actors don't even read the stage directions at all.

Being on 'The Office' prepared me for drama. Comedy got me ready, but once you get down to it, they're two sides of the same thing. I mean, the delivery has to be different - in drama, there's more time to breathe, and comedy's all about hitting the joke.