Christopher Guest Quotes

American actor, writer, and director, known for his mockumentary films like "This Is Spinal Tap" and "Best in Show."

The movies have a way of seeping out there over time. We don't put them in 2,000 theaters. It wouldn't work that way.

In the kind of films that I do, there is an extremely limited number of people that can improvise. The reason the ensemble continues in the movies is because those are the people that can do that kind of work. It's not just an accident those people are in the film.

Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.

'The Office' is an amazing show. So is 'Extras.'

I started on the clarinet. I was going to a music school - my mother took me - and the guy said, 'What do you want to play?' I said the drums, and my mother said, 'No, you don't. You don't want to play the drums.' So I said, 'Maybe the trumpet would be cool.' And my mother said, 'I don't think so.' And then the clarinet was handed to me.

You can't improvise without a skeletal structure; you can't just go in and start talking. This is a very misunderstood craft because no one else makes movies like this.

Strangely enough, among my dad's things, I found the diary of an ancestor who was born in 1797 and became a ventriloquist in London. That was quite chilling. It described exactly how I was as a child but 150 years earlier - doing voices, pretending to be a ventriloquist.

The fun part about doing our movies is that you're creating something using the talents of people rather than finding these pathetic people who are thrust into these situations. That, to me, is completely artless.

My passion is more specific, in the sense that I've always liked doing comedy. I've always liked doing music. I like acting. And apparently, you need those things in movies.

I talk to people of different ages, and a guy who's 38 who says, 'I could've played Major League Baseball, but I had this knee injury...' Yeah, probably not. It's a big thing with men and sports, where they think they could have touched that thing.

People want me to be funny all the time. They think I'm being funny no matter what I say or do and that's not the case.

What's interesting about Laurel and Hardy is that in most comedy teams, there's a straight man, and then there's the funny guy. And with Laurel and Hardy, they're both the funny guy.

I don't read anything about my movies before or after I do films, or any part of show business. I think that keeps me in a kind of place where I can do the work that I need to do.

I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren'... -Christopher Guest

I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren't remotely funny.

In real life, people fumble their words. They repeat themselves and stare blankly off into space and don't listen properly to what other people are saying. I find that kind of speech fascinating but screenwriters never write dialogue like that because it doesn't look good on the page.

As an actor, I trust my ear.

Discovering the context

The quote suggests that, as an actor, the speaker relies on their intuition and instincts, particularly their sense of hearing, indicating a belief in the importance of trusting one's artistic instincts and sensory perception.

Christopher Guest Quotes

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