Frears Quotes & Sayings

Truth is quite constricting, in a way. You endlessly see at the start of a film 'This is a true story'. — Stephen Frears

I like making films about different cultures. I'm interested in things that I've never encountered before. I try to put myself in the audience's position. — Stephen Frears

Anything that lights your world leaves it dark once it's gone. — Ashly Lorenzana

It never crossed my mind to make a film about Muhammad Ali or the Queen or any of them! They just come out of the blue. — Stephen Frears

As a director, my job is to protect. I protect scripts, actors, cameramen, designers. — Stephen Frears

There's the physical life and the voice, but at some point you abandon all of that, you know what the spirit of the person is and you let it descend and just get on with it. — Stephen Frears

It wasn't enough, just knowing that Noelle was alive and on her way back to us. So I sat there wondering if Noelle had screamed when she was taken. And if she had, why hadn't anyone heard? — Kristina McBride

I teach film directing, inasmuch as you can. It's not really possible to teach film direction, but I sit there as a sort of testimony of experience and know-how, I suppose. — Stephen Frears

I remember reading the script for 'Dangerous Liaisons' and thinking that I could quite happily spend the rest of my life watching this film; the story and the writing were so wonderful. — Stephen Frears

I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right. — Stephen Frears

Audiences aren't fools - their judgement really is important. And the true heroes of films are the investors. They take the risk, after all. — Stephen Frears

I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts. — Stephen Frears

To be successful at anything, you need the right to fail, not just occasionally. — Stephen Frears

Existentialism
"every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind," we have entered the familiar Wordsworthian Romantic territory in which nature is phenomena and spirit is noumena and the task of the human person is to draw his being from whatever inscrutable force produces, organizes, and infuses the phenomenal universe - an "ineffable essence which we call Spirit. Being as not being stable but forever in flux and transition. Even history, Which seems obviously about the past, has its true use as the servant of the present.' Emerson and Buddhism stand for spirituality purged of creed detritus.' the essence of Existentialism is that you find meaning in nature, wisdom, mind and body. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing. — Stephen Frears

I'm Jewish; I'm not religious at all, and I wouldn't pretend to know anything about Catholic politics. — Stephen Frears

If I'd seen a playwright ever write an' play at the same time, I'd have given 'em more of a chance at cards. Can I get an 'amen?' — Mark Twain

When I go and teach, it sort of opens me up in some way. And when you're open, you're more receptive. — Stephen Frears

I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears, and others who allow that collaboration, I can't see why I would ever want to direct. — Peter Morgan

You can do a movie and hope it may be great, but until you have seen it, you don't know. I loved 'Rampart.' I love that one called 'The Hi-Low Country' that Steven Frears shot. — Woody Harrelson

Pa
I did exactly as you said, Pa
I held my head up high..

Even before we got to ten
I was aiming for the sky
I was aiming for the sky — Lin-Manuel Miranda

I have people around me. I have a semi-permanent crew. If I make a film, they just turn up. They don't even invite themselves. They don't ask if they can come - they just turn up! — Stephen Frears

I want my films to get audiences. I am not interested in making them just for myself. — Stephen Frears

If they didn't have ten fights a night, it was a bad night. — John Hunter

I've always found poverty a source of strength. — Stephen Frears