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I have a healthy view of what one can do with art.
Neil LaBute -
I will say that the idea of a woman being deceptive came from that original discussion with critics and reporters about if woman could do that kind of thing. Evelyn, herself, grew out of the discussions about how capable women are of deceit and lying and manipulation.
Neil LaBute
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If we put the camera on ourselves, our friends and neighbors, we'll come up with some scary stuff.
Neil LaBute -
I was very careful to cast guys who were very good-looking and very fit and who had a certain sense of privilege about them, because with that sense of privilege comes contempt.
Neil LaBute -
But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he's in a place where I wouldn't have expected him to be - taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend's wife.
Neil LaBute -
People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.
Neil LaBute -
With In the Company of Men, the misogynist label stuck early and firmly. In the end, it probably did hurt the film a bit, because getting women into the theaters was difficult.
Neil LaBute -
I think Christine and Chad are on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Christine is a model victim, and Chad is a model perpetrator, and Howard is closer to the middle.
Neil LaBute
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Without In The Company of Men, I could still be teaching, so who knows if this would've existed.
Neil LaBute -
Sitting in an automobile was where I first remember understanding how drama works ... Hidden in the back seat of a sedan, I quickly realized how deep the chasm or intense the claustrophobia could be inside your average family car.
Neil LaBute -
There were certain things that I watched, and I screened a series of period films as well, not because I wanted to copy those, because I wanted to be different. “Far from the Madding Crowd” was one I looked to because I thought it looked so good. “Doctor Zhivago.” Unrequited love is always a great thing. “Tess” was something I looked at, I thought Polanski got the period right.
Neil LaBute -
I felt, if I'm going to take on some of the most overdone material, which is men and women and affairs and betrayal of friends, I had better have a new take on it. I think my films come from a desperation not to be boring.
Neil LaBute -
The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.
Neil LaBute -
And I've got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to.
Neil LaBute
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I think the more the actor lets you know what he thinks of the character, the less the audience cares - like a comedian who laughs at his own jokes.
Neil LaBute -
It's funny how that comes up, because sometimes I'll write something and I'll think, I don't know if that's a film or a play, and then other things I feel very strongly about them just being plays - they feel very theatrical to me.
Neil LaBute -
I was always looking for the most dramatic emphasis. One example would be the letter writing, or the reading of the letters. If you remember from the book, they find the letters and then in the most undramatic way they take them downstairs, they get approval, they sit at a table during the day with their own author, across from each other.
Neil LaBute -
Movies are - all I've found is that they're just tougher and tougher to make.
Neil LaBute -
And with Aaron, I'd have to find a reason not to work with him.
Neil LaBute