Adam McKay
There are many aspects to directing that have a romantic place in people's minds.Collection: Romantic
First and foremost when you're doing comedy, you gotta be relevant and applicable to the times that you're living in. When you try and just do comedy about who is dating who and lifestyle jokes, it gets tiring after a while. It's hard to be funny in that realm.Collection: Dating
Creative freedom is a huge carrot.Collection: Freedom
There's nothing more American than movies.Collection: Movies
I don't think arrested-adolescent humor will fade. Maybe the form will change, but I guarantee its replacement will still be based in immature behavior from mature figures.Collection: Humor
Arnold Schwarzenegger cut teacher's salaries and parks and libraries rather than raise taxes for the many California millionaires and billionaires.Collection: Teacher
Celebrities and 'famous' people are just regular folks. I know, it's a shocking and potentially dangerous statement.Collection: Famous
I would never do 'Stardust Memories' because I don't particularly like that kind of movie - that would be why I wouldn't do that.
I always say the classier cousin of 'Anchorman' is 'Mad Men,' because when you really look at it, why do people really love Don Draper in 'Mad Men?' He's just a terrible guy. But we know why he's terrible, and I think that's really key to why you can be sympathetic to a character.
You have to be able to fail with the improv. You have to not care.
When the movie starts playing on TV and DVD, that's when you really see what the movie is.
I was shocked when 'The Hobbit' ended where it ended. I wasn't paying attention to what they were doing; I didn't know they had another movie, and I couldn't believe it was when the dragon came out.
When I was at 'SNL,' I would constantly get in arguments, 'Why aren't we more political? We're not going after Bush.' Then look what happened - that Sarah Palin season, they were on fire. It was about something.
Friends give me a hard time about the pants I'm wearing, which are made in China. Well, how do you find the right clothes? Or the right movie studio? The right people giving you checks? Good luck doing the right thing all the time.
Wal-Mart is the biggest distributor of DVDs out there, but personally, I think their manufacturing policies have destroyed our economy, and they don't pay their employees enough. I have massive problems with them.
'Blazing Saddles' is one of the funniest movies ever made.
Everything in America is so stratified by class now. We have the 93rd level of income inequality in the world. You're already seeing highway lanes that are for pay and ones that aren't.
Having a guy on a microphone yelling lines at you is counter to a lot of acting techniques.
I think when a lot of actors hear improv, they think of throwing a line in or doing a slightly different take.
For 'Breaking Bad,' people were with Walter White for 99% of that show, even though that guy is a monster.
I'll tell you one thing... no doubt about it, my favorite kind of comedy is talking head comedy. I mean, if it were up to me, I'd do a whole entire movie that was just around a dinner table.
First off, no one award-wise ever rewards comedy, which is... whatever. I don't care about that.
I think everyone knows the news has become ridiculous. It's entertainment driven.
You need the audience to go on the ride with you. You can't just isolate them.
You're not a slave to those test audiences.
The key is a good story. If you have a good story, you have enough emotional beats that you can hit.
I gotta say - if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I'd love that article.
The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way, you can break the ice. It's crazy, but even at funerals, people will get huge laughs.
I like to remind myself how hard acting is. I do parts in friends' stuff.
For some reason, people with comedy, any time they can detect a pattern, it kind of freaks them out. 'Those guys are always together!' Yeah, they're a comedy team. Anything they can recognize as a pattern they think is a hole.
There's nothing more fun than mean-spirited characters.
If you aim for parody right off the bat and it misses, no offense to the filmmakers, but it is Meet the Spartans.
I think there's a tendency to think geeks and nerds are just sweet guys that were picked on, but that hasn't been my experience. I'm certainly not like that, in a lot of ways.
You think of movies like 'Midnight Run' and '48 Hours', those are great movies, especially 'Midnight Run.'
In the past, in the '60s and '70s, genres were much more segmented. You had action guys who were deadly serious about it, and I think you had comics that were comics.
Nowadays, the truth is, I think a lot of the newer generation of action stars usually are pretty self-deprecating and cool. I mean, Dwayne Johnson is a great example.
You can't really do a big character in an action film; you're already suspending your disbelief in the action, then to suspend your disbelief in the character is too much.
I love Paul Rudd.
I am actually talking about possibly adapting 'The Boys,' by Garth Ennis, which would not be a comedy, but an action movie with comedy elements to it.
My wife is pretty geeky and will occasionally quote 'Anchorman' at me.
Any time Chris Nolan wants to call me for advice, he can.
Things I used to get in trouble for writing at 'SNL,' suddenly other people like it.
We, Will Ferrell and I, were approached by Sequoia, which is a big financing firm up in Palo Alto; they do a lot of Internet stuff, and they came to us and said they had an idea for a comedy site, and Will and I were sorta like, 'Yeah, we don't know. It's the Internet, we've seen it come and go.'
A lot of shorts spend too much time setting up the idea; sometimes they meander.
As far as what makes a viral video, then it's gotta be something that you've either never seen before, a fresh piece of comedy, or something that relates to something topical.
I hired Tina Fey for 'SNL,' which was certainly a good match. She took off right away there.
My theme song is 'One Tin Soldier' by Coven.
I was completely with the reality TV boom for a while. I really liked a lot of the reality TV, and the one that lost me was the ballroom dancing one they do, 'Dancing with the Stars.' That was the one where I watched it and I was perplexed. I thought it was really boring.
I love 'The Wire;' that's my favorite show, so I'll watch that.
'The Real World' is the most predictable arc ever. They get on the show, they're all excited, we're gonna be best friends, then people start drinking and get hammered, and say stupid stuff, and that's pretty much it.