[ad_1]
“It was more than their deftness on stage or their skill in working with actors,” Zwick wrote. “There was an ineffable humanism that marked every performance they put on, and it felt like a legacy of what we had started.”
He also gives insight into the different approaches of some of the leading actors he has worked with over the years. They include Denzel Washington ( Glory, courage in the fire and Siege), Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins (Legends of the Time), Tom Cruise(The Last Samurai and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back), Leonardo DiCaprio(Blood Diamond), Daniel Craig (Contempt), Meg RyanCourage Under Fire) and Anne Hathaway (Love and Elixirs).
Michael Steadman (Ken Olin) and Hope Murdoch Steadman (Mel Harris).Credit: MGM
On the other hand, he directed Matthew Broderick glory And his mother did everything she could to try to sabotage the production. Providing assistance under the guise of obstruction. For Zwick, her nagging about how he should shape her son’s role in the film reflected her frustration as an artist. Then there was the issue of producer Harvey Weinstein, with whom he had a serious falling out after being involved in the initial preparations for the film. Shakespeare in Loveeven though the convicted rapist has probably heard a lot worse things said about him.
He looks back with gratitude at those who helped him along the way, such as Woody Allen, who Love and Death. Sidney Pollack (Nostalgia, Three Days of the Condor) became a mentor he greatly respected, offering him great advice on how to best approach his craft: “Listen, kid,” he remembered Pollack telling him, “plot is the rotten meat the thief throws to the dog so he can climb the fence and get to the jewels, which are the characters.”
Daniel Craig stars in Ed Zwick’s 2008 film “Defiance.”
Zwick has spent his life producing some of the best films and television shows of the past 40 years. Success, Failure, and Other Delusions He shows a keen eye for the creative process and how Hollywood works. He takes his work very seriously, even though he is always trying to make it the way he wants it.
“Throughout history, popular storytellers have always been the default moralists of their time,” he wrote. “To abandon that obligation in the name of creating mindless ‘entertainment’ is to abdicate a sacred responsibility. It is not enough to make films that drown out the growing screams of the world outside the Hollywood bubble.”
loading
He thinks this bubble is the problem. “Whether intentionally or not,” he notes tartly, “studios will do whatever it takes to make a script ‘accessible.’ ” He has no patience for the people in charge, and offers a few pointed quips to explain why: “I remember Cameron Crowe describing an executive who claimed to know the way but had no map and couldn’t drive. As Steven Soderbergh once told an executive, ‘You’re confusing having an opinion with having an idea.’ ”
Filled with advice for those who want to do what he does, and insights for those interested in his impressive body of work, Zwick’s book is insightful, illuminating and entertaining. He says his life would have taken a very different path without his wife, soul mate and creative collaborator, Liberty Godshall. He adds apologetically that he couldn’t find enough words to thank her, though he knows her response to that statement would be: “Just give it a try.”
The Book List is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from book editor Jason Steger. Delivery every Friday.
[ad_2]
Source link
