Eugene Levy Quotes (43 Quotes)

There is a similarity in the kinds of characters I gravitate to that goes back to my earliest years in the business on SCTV, ... I have more fun playing guys who are not the sharp pencils. I like the characters who are just average, if not a little below average, so the average person can look at my character on the screen and feel a little better about themselves.

Detroit is still seen as the tough city, a city that has a reputation for high crime, ... The tough city thing is fine. It's always had a reputation as that. ... You know, Gordie Howe, when I was watching hockey, was the toughest guy in the league playing for the Red Wings. He represented that tough aura.

I play an agent who used to be partners in a very large talent agency. My partner died and everybody left. Evidently he was the brains of the outfit, so now my setup couldn't be smaller. I have absolutely no clout in the business but still consider myself a player.

is a look at what happens on a movie set when the word Oscar gets bandied about.

I think they liked the idea of developing this persona I've had into the central character,

I'll tell you why you're going to do what you're going to do today is because you're my bitch.

Do they, uh, have actual love scenes We have one kissing scene, and I'm glad there aren't more because it makes my life better at home, ... Each day, my own wife would say at the end of the day, 'So Eugene, how is your new wife Carmen doing'

The success of that movie, that certainly took me by surprise, ... I thought it was a little movie with a cast of unknowns, and I loved the part.

I didn't know whether Sam would come in and want to try to be funny or try to add to the comedy by creating a comedy version of the character people know him to play. He played it very straight, and that was his instinct and that was the right instinct.

He's played with Tiger, OK ... He's a good golfer. I'm a hacker. I think he just gets a good chuckle out of watching me play.

He just likes to have a good time. He's a storyteller. When they would yell cut, he would just break and go off on another story, trying to get some laughs.

This was more of a cartoonish thing for me and it kind of took me back to SCTV, in a way, where the characters are just a little broader and you can have that kind of fun going a little over the edge.

I don't know whether (comics) have the opportunity to be as well-rounded, necessarily,

A Mighty Wind.

Pushing The Man in the wake of Katrina is one of the more difficult things I've had to do, ... We've had to go out and we have to talk about this thing. We have to try and be positive about the movie ... But, at the same time, it seems like the most bizarre thing in the world to do.

In 1970, Ivan was filming Foxy Lady. I knew I wasn't going to pass my year so I called him,

I don't consider myself, you know, in real life one of those funny guys. My comedy comes through my work,

I don't believe I've ever played a hip dude. I don't think I would have the wherewithal to do that.

I can't remember the last time I played a bad guy, so that was kind of an appeal.

We went through all the scenes and they became kind of funny and they expanded a little bit and because it seemed to be working so well in the movie, they added a couple of things later on in the movie and that's how it turned out.

At the end of the day, the numbers that we're hearing are not going to be totally correct or not correct at all.

I am used to popping in, doing my thing, then getting out very cleanly and hitting the golf course,

My vibe doesn't include people standing at attention when I show up with their eyes bulging out. People think I'm the guy down the street, which is heartwarming. My kids also think I'm the dorky square guy.

You get a good creative release doing these movies with Chris, having the kind of experience of doing a movie with absolutely no interference, ... However it comes out, it's how you want it to come out. But by the same token, those aren't the movies that are necessarily paying the bills.

In the early days, it was like Second City , or National Lampoon , that kind of created Saturday Night Live , and it seems now, for the most part, there are stand-ups who are hired and brought into the show because they have the ability to come up with the one-liner.

I think I'm the only actor in the history of film who got to slap Sam Jackson on the face and butt and lived to tell about it.

He called me one day in Toronto. My wife and I had moved back from Los Angeles after the kids were born they have a son and a daughter, and I knew who he was and was a big fan of his work, going back to his National Lampoon days. And he said 'I'm doing a movie. Do you want to write it with me' And so I went down to his place in Idaho and from day one, it was amazing how we clicked. These films are great ensemble pieces with people who are so adept at doing this kind of work.

look at a truth in a situation, keep it real - don't try to get a laugh at the expense of your story.

No, you don't understand. We want you to sign it now.

In my case, the laughs that I'm going for really have to come through the character. It's the same with Sam. We both look for the truth in a situation.

I am the common man. I'm polite, I love my family and I play by the rules. And sometimes I get pushed around. That's my lifestyle, and that's what I try to bring to characters.

In ten minutes, I'm thinking, 'OK, you know what? I love these guys. They're really smart, they're really good, they've got a good sense of comedy, under their guidance, I think maybe this could come out OK.' But I didn't like the part.

American Pie' was a big movie for me. No one knew it at the time, but it allowed me to be offered such movies as 'Like Mike' and 'New York Minute' with the Olsen twins,

I let the comedy come through the character and just try to make sure that everything is kind of rounded in a truth, in a reality, because that's what I need to make a character work.

Maybe it's because improvisational people have the same kind of understood language when you're working together. It really only took, like, maybe an hour... feeling out rhythms and things like that. But it wasn't a lot of improvising, and there wasn't a lot of fooling around on the set. I think we both like to know that we feel comfortable with the lines.

I like that there is no jeopardy when I work on a film with Chris, ... Castle Rock (Entertainment) just gives us around 8 million and we are left alone with no interference. I like the control of getting to do what is close to your sensibility.

So, listen, different strokes for different folks, some people just like the joke, some people like to hear the funny line. The joke is the thing, and it works for them. Airplane, the Zucker brothers, they perfected that art form - just an hour and a half of great, funny jokes. Fabulous

The greatest thing about doing this movie was that Chris and I both were involved in folk music in the '60s. I had a group, but I don't think it was at the same level as Chris, because he's an amazing musician.

tons of movies are shot in Toronto, but Toronto is never Toronto.

We want these comedy situations to be grounded in a truth,

And I'm doing a pilot for TV Land, called 'I Did Not Know That.' It's co-produced by Paul Reiser.

Listen, I'm not making a 90-degree turn here. For me, running is action. That's difficult enough. And in this movie, I was running, I was falling, I was jumping on cars, I was crawling across a floor padded up to the hilt. I got banged up a little.

It's very easy to sit down and work on a script with Chris, ... We make each other laugh.