I've done movies I'm very proud of, but there's always a sense of: 'Come see this shiny new car!' The question I hate the most is: 'Why should people see it?'
Oscar IsaacRead
I really just like characters who you don't know where they stand for a long while. It's like people. You hang out with them for 10 years, and then all of a sudden they do something, and you say, 'Who are you?' That's more interesting. In life and on-screen.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the complexity of human nature and the intrigue of characters who are not easily defined.
Oscar Isaac emphasizes the allure of characters whose true natures remain ambiguous for an extended period, drawing a parallel to real-life relationships. This uncertainty invites deeper engagement and surprise, as it mirrors the unpredictable facets of human behavior that can reveal much about an individual over time.
In practice
During a discussion on character development in a film class.
I've done movies I'm very proud of, but there's always a sense of: 'Come see this shiny new car!' The question I hate the most is: 'Why should people see it?'
I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.
I like films that take their time a little bit more and don't show you all of their cards right away, characters that are conflicted and contradicting and seem one way at first and then suddenly turn out to be something else.
I think it's good to be a little more fearless in saying what you feel. In not being scared of the repercussions of that.
Most actors, if you ask them if they play guitar, they'll say they played guitar for 20 years, but what they really mean is they've owned a guitar for 20 years.
'Cool' is detached and emotionally cool. My instinct is to battle anything that seems overly cool.
If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.
By the time I wrote my memoir, 'Men We Reaped,' I had been running from writing it for a long time. When the events in the book were happening, I knew I'd probably write about them one day. I didn't want to. I'd studied fiction, and I was committed to establishing myself as a fiction writer first.
It is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable.
It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.
Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel.
That was the worst part about having cancer, sometimes: The physical evidence of disease separates you from other people.
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