Ivan Reitman Quotes on Movies (10 Quotes)

I'm not sure I agree with the thesis, because I think that even though something grotesque or gross has been part of film since way back, what we accept or what we can get away with on the screen is broader now.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.

Also watching a movie on DVD is different than watching it in the theater.

A good actor is someone who knows how to take the part and make it real and make it honest and be effective in it. If it's in a funny movie and, as long as they are cast in an appropriate way, humor will come from it.

A lot of movies at this festival were struggling to find distributors, ... This film was fortunate enough to find more than its share.

My first student film was Orientation, which was basically the set-up for Animal House. There are a couple of scenes that we later borrowed in some form.

Movies either work or they don't work and they're either funny or they're not and we work very hard. To achieve that kind of work is really kind of delicate stitching.

Very early on, I decided I didn't want smoking in the movie. It's not really a movie about smoking, but about lobbying. Tobacco is just the setting. It's not that I believe in the idea that movies should be responsible and not show smoking. But I think if the characters had been smoking, it would have seemed a pro-smoking movie, whereas it's about lobbying and spin and talk.

I always see things that I can improve. But frankly with Stripes, I'm surprised at how effective it is, even today, and how vibrant that movie is and how juicy the performances all are.