“My big advice is do your homework. See what’s been made before you go make your film, not because you want to copy it. You need to understand the context in which you’re making something and what’s been done before. And even watching films...
“I was working out the schedule for Into the Woods, and I sat Meryl [Streep] down. I said, ‘Meryl, I’m thinking that I’ll bring in the cast, we’ll work for about three weeks, and then we’ll have you come in, and then we’ll...
“There’s the kind of note that you get from somebody that’s paying you, and there’s the kind of notes that you’re getting somebody that’s not paying you. So the ones that are not paying you, you listen to. If you get the note from...
“I think the people who have done okay in this business are people who are persistent despite the desperate struggles. I mean, I’ve never had a film that didn’t have a very dark moment where I really wanted out. And I hated the subject, I hated the...
“And I said, I don’t know any editor. The only editor I’ve ever heard of is Jacqueline Onassis, and he said, she might be interested in this. And so he submitted the proposal to her…and that was it. The first time I went to her...
