George Tillman, Jr.
Food was a labor of love you felt by cooking it and eating it.
I love telling stories from a kid's point of view because they don't really see all the obstacles in front of them. They're resilient, and sometimes adults can steal that from them.
When I was working on 'Men of Honor' with Robert De Niro, there's a pipe that he has in the movie, and it took us about six weeks to find the right pipe for him to use and feel comfortable with. It was a great choice, because it was really about what worked with the camera at that time.
As the director, I try to go in and know as much as I can about the material. I really try to go in and understand what all the characters are about, what the movie's going to look like.
I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.
I shoot a lot of film - that's one of the things I try to do, and it's one of the things I learned how to do with Robert De Niro on 'Men of Honor.'
It's called 'Miles Davis, Prince of Darkness,' and it's about Miles Davis, the genius, and why he was the way he was, and how he changed music so many times. He changed music six times. So, I'm excited about that movie.
I want to see that 'Anita' documentary. I want to see 'Lovelace'; I want to see 'After Midnight,' because I saw the other two and I loved them. I thought the last one was great.
Filmmakers are always in a bubble; along with our crew or writer, we don't really get to socialize with other filmmakers, so the great thing about Sundance is you can see many other filmmakers doing the same thing you do.
These guys at Fox knew that as a filmmaker, I could always tell different types of stories and each can emotionally connect to a universal audience.
I never paid attention to many of the Nicholas Sparks films. 'The Notebook,' which my wife liked, I felt that Ryan Gosling was a genius in it and Rachel McAdams has this thing about her that you just want to take care of her. I remember that chemistry between them.
You can't make an action movie without action, and so, you can't make a romance movie without romance.
Sometimes I get into the movies and into the roles; it's hard for me to move on.
Even looking at my last film, 'Notorious,' you got a perception about B.I.G. and who he was, but there was a different side to him.
Steve McQueen was the guy who said less, and everything was all behind his words and what he didn't say, and you still felt emotionally connected and rooted behind him.
I don't really consider myself a writer.
It's my responsibility to make the movie work with the schedule and money we have. It's my job to get the best movie we can do in the time we have.
Several hundred years ago, the only thing that slave families had was cooking and their family meals.
There was a group of six women in my household. My mom, aunts and grandma. I watched them in the kitchen.
I call it soul food, and I call it compassion food because it kind of bonds loved ones together. It kept families together for a long time.
I didn't understand the Los Angeles atmosphere.
I used to get so upset with my father. I'd ask him, 'Why do I have to be around all these women all the time?' But in time, I learned that was an advantage.
I'm in this business to make films, not get deluded by the system. The system is set up to give you a headache.
I wanted to make a movie about a black family in Middle America. I wanted to make a film where everyone can look at them and say, 'This is my family.'
I realized that food was actually a metaphor for bringing us all together. It's about us communicating and being like family.
It's a balance. Like, we are shooting the big car chase at the end and it's me with everybody. And I got my stunt coordinator who shot some stuff and I'm like, you are right next to me, why don't we do it together.Collection: Car
Instead of saying, ah, I don't have the money, just embrace it and do what we can do. And the scenes that we film and the characterizations in the scenes can come out interesting. And I really feel good about that, going into it.Collection: Interesting
I'm a big fan of the 70's action films. Where there is a lot of character and a lot of great action, but the action is kind of cemented with a great back-story with characters. And I thought, this kind of reminded me of the movies that, early on when I was telling Dwayne (Johnson) and the guys, the producer... my whole thing is if you look at a movie like The Driver by Walter Hill, it's a film where there's no names. They are just named, "the driver", "the cop".Collection: Character
I just felt like, you know, I read a lot of scripts out in L.A., out here in the industry and I just felt like this film was just being genuine. I just felt like it had really great characters. And all the three different characters have completely different stories and they're all kind of intertwined together thematically. So I just thought it had great characters, great themesCollection: Character
is grey, and I like that about all the characters, the killer, the driver... the movie has a very unlikely Hollywood ending, at the same time it helps you for a sequel too. Those are the things that I think are attractive, it's more, its real life, and people can identify with it and it just grounds it to a certain degree. That's the reason why.Collection: Real
It's going back to old school, the way it was done and I'm finding out there is something different, a little interesting. There is something just a little fresh about it because I haven't seen it done like that in a little while. I'm embracing it, you know.Collection: Old School
That was exciting man, because the killer is a different kind of character. There are a lot of people who wanted to play the role. I'm happy that Sony and CBS took a chance on a new face. I like the idea that he is from a different country. He has a British sensibility. I like that Billy Bob has a darker edge.Collection: Country