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Quotes
You look MAHVELOUS!"
Women need a reason to
have sex. Men just need a place.
In high school, I was the
class comedian as opposed to the class clown. The difference is, the
class clown is the guy who drops his pants at the football game, the
class comedian is the guy who talked him into it.
And I'm
very animated when I do it anyway, so my hands would move and so on, so
the character moves like me.
And I'm writing a play - a one-man show that's very,
very autobiographical, which ought to be ready by the end of the year.
And so they were real funny, hip, Lester Young, Roy
Eldridge, Louie Armstrong, all these guys were always around.
Any therapist I've ever met, I have a lot of friends
from school who are, their lives are stinky.
As a director and an actor, I encourage improvisation
but in character and in the moment of what it is.
As soon as they announced the nominations, I'd wake
up thinking Shakespeare jokes - Shakespeare in love, Shakespeare in
heat, Private Ryan, General Ryan, Saving Shakespeare, Ryan in Love,
y'know?
At some point I stopped stand-up because I didn't
have something to say on a nightly basis.
Bambi, to a kid, was scary.
De Niro agreed to come to the reading, but he hadn't
committed yet. So he showed up, and about 30 people were there, and they
really enjoyed it.
Even when I was in school shows, in elementary school
doing plays, I'd always go off book and start improvising.
Hopefully you've got something good to do, and people
trust you.
I didn't have a specific monster guy.
I had fears of the dark, you know. I didn't like
being in the dark.
I had generalized anxiety which is worse.
I had really good hearing and when you're scared it
gets heightened so you hear scratching noises or something.
I kept pushing, saying make that a little edgier, you
can go a little further.
I knew the audience that would come to see this would
be adults and kids and the older, wrinkled kids will love this movie
too.
I played clarinet but what was natural for me was to
imitate them and make them laugh.
I really like to watch it, and I'll spend part of it
with the Arizona Diamond Backs, a small team I like.
I think Shrek was terrific.
I'm the runt of the litter too.
I've seen the tests of me as Buzz Lightyear. They
used lines from When Harry Met Sally which was hysterical.
It was also the timing of the '50's. There were also
some great comedy shows on live TV.
It's different than in a movie where you shoot it and
then you know you have it or you do a reshoot.
It's great - a great thing to do, and I've tried to
make the m.c. job more than just an announcing spot - or even a
commentary on the prizes, y'know?
Jiminy Cricket was a phenomenal character.
My dad was a jazz producer.
My dad was in the music business.
My mother was the voice of Minnie Mouse for a little
while in the Macy's Day parades in New York.
Nobody is more truthful when he's acting than De Niro.
People are excited that Snow White came out on DVD.
Shrek is a fantastic fable, really funny and it's
great too.
So, I grew up amongst jazz musicians.
That's the thing about jazz: it's free flowing, it
comes from your soul.
The epic animation, the whale, Cleo, all the other
stuff that Disney was able to put in movies, amazing ideas.
The Father's Day script was never ready to shoot. It
was a rush job. There was too much to explain.
The house smelled of brisket and bourbon. That's the
music I grew up on.
The inspiration was this great group of 40 or 50
relatives, sometimes for Thanksgiving or Passover or something and my
brothers would just go up and make them laugh.
The label was a legendary label, a family business
called the Commodore Jazz label.
The tone is crucial, especially when you're working
with something like psychiatry.
There was always a stand-up on Ed Sullivan on Sunday
and my dad would bring home comedy albums from the store.
There were some pretty scary movies back then, which
now seem not as scary to some people, but Psycho, as a kid, was just
terrifying.
To be good, you need to believe in what you're doing.
To be part of the legacy of Snow White and Pinocchio
and Old Yeller and Davy Crockett and the Mouse Club and Annette and now
the Pixar movies, which he would be thrilled about.
We carefully thought out stuff. I spoke to a
therapist, who I don't pay, who's a friend. I spoke with someone who
works at the suicide hotline.
We owned this little record store on 42nd Street and
he knew we loved comedy.
Well, the way things are going, aside from wheat and
auto parts, America's biggest export is now the Oscar.
What I love about the movie, at any time, is that
families can go see it together and it should provoke thought and
discussion about fear and about kids.
Whoopie always says she's only leasing that job.
Yeah, Pinocchio. It's a great story, the little boy.
You could relate to the kid.
You had to use your imagination in the best of ways
to get into their heads, because the animators sort of know what it's
gonna be, but you help create their paints for them.
You have to eliminate Walt Disney company like we
know it today. What it started out to be was what influenced me as a
kid.
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