If all else fails, you can always be a pro.
Normally when it hits two and a half, three hours, the audience gets exhausted and start yawning.
We get so much information during the day that doesn't really tell us anything.
In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.
“Firewall” seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides “military” and “government?”
Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.
Obamacare is a private mandate that will drive billions to the insurance industry, much like the auto insurance mandate. Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.
As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.
Dave Herman as Michael Bolton is one of my favorite performances ever.
I've gotten like five laughs in movies, just off guy hugs.
I'm just a giant film fan, so I love action movies out of all kinds of movies. As a film geek, it's amazing to be able to shoot this stuff.
As for movies, what's great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.
You could feel America starting to ease up a little bit on racism, against blacks in certain pockets, and then suddenly The Cosby Show bubbled up and it was the right time for it.
I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it's there and to push it just a little bit faster.
I think what's dangerous [about comedy] is that you're coming into the room announcing your intentions.
Blanket cynicism toward government has always existed.
Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals - always funny.
I grew up with a single mom who was a waitress. We were on food stamps. My mom then got Pell Grants, put herself through college to get a degree to get a better job. Because we were broke, I then had to go to a state school. I went to Temple University, and had to get loans. So I grew up in a world where I saw the government helping individuals pull themselves up, and saw it work very successfully.
There's a lot of things you can't control. But you can always be a pro.
Every time I wrote a sketch that was in my voice, Ferrell would just do it better.
I always give myself a little part in every movie.
It so happens that America, according to all the polls that are out there, is pretty progressive. So you're not going to see messages that support Ayn Randian individualism at the cost of the whole, because most people don't agree with that.
There's always way less improv than people think. The truth is something like 15 percent.
There are so many shoot-'em-up, action, jingoistic TV shows and movies that are made every year. I think the final line is that Hollywood is populist.
We punch mirrors and we explore our darker selves. No, it's just an amalgam of all newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these people were like gods.
