David O. Russell Quotes

David O. Russell — American Director born on August 20, 1958,

David Owen Russell is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His early directing career includes the comedy films Spanking the Monkey, Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees. Three of Russell's films – the biographical sports drama The Fighter, the romantic comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook, and the comedy-drama crime film American Hustle – were commercially successful and acclaimed by critics, having earned Russell three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Silver Linings Playbook and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for American Hustle. He is also noted for his collaborations with actors Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, having directed each of them in three films... (wikipedia)

I just love real characters; they're not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they're regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they're all right there on the surface.

The whole trick is to make it feel like you're spying on real people's lives as they get through the day. When I'm writing, I have to trick myself as a writer. If I consciously say, 'I'm writing,' I feel all this pressure and somehow it doesn't feel as real as when it doesn't seem to count as much.

I'm always looking for a way to surprise audiences. That's, I feel, my job as a director. I felt that Amy Adams playing a tough woman in 'The Fighter' was a surprise. People saw her as a princess.

The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing.

I got put on jury duty, which is where I learned how to write.

David O. Russell Quotes

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