Todd Phillips: Reality television hasn't killed documentaries, because...

I think reviewers have become particularly venomous because, in a way, the power has been sucked from them. A 15-year-old can write a review on the Internet and it means as much as Roger Ebert's review, and that just makes Roger Ebert mad, so he comes out harder and stronger.

Todd Phillips

writing mean thinking

All my movies, as I get the ability to do it, they tend to go a little darker, a little darker.

Todd Phillips

ability littles

You're only as good as your body of work, and everybody has issues, whether it's Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese. I'm not comparing myself to those guys, but you learn more from the misses than the hits.

Todd Phillips

issues guy missing

I think comedy directors tend to feel a need to justify the bad behavior, and I just never think that. I like bad behavior, I've always liked bad behavior, I'm a fan of bad behavior, and I don't think you have to justify bad behavior.

Todd Phillips

fans directors thinking

You know, if I started worrying about what the critics think, I'd never make another comedy. You couldn't pick a less funny group than critics - you couldn't find a more bitter group of people!

Todd Phillips

worry people thinking

I take it very seriously, music. I think it's one of the tools that a director has with which to kind of paint. The right music can sometimes do five pages of scripted dialogue.

Todd Phillips

tools directors thinking

I remember that when I got to NYU, everyone was writing scripts. But I was 18 at the time, and when you write a script, so much of it is about what you pull from life, and this sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I didn't have enough life experience at that point to write a movie.

Todd Phillips

cheesy nyu writing

I like - there's a better word for it, but I like the danger that a comic brings to a role. It has a feeling, even though everything's scripted and everything's planned what you're going to do. When I see Will Ferrell or Sacha Baron Cohen, there's a feeling that anything could happen.

Todd Phillips

comic roles feelings

Reality television hasn't killed documentaries, because there are so many great documentaries still being made, but it certainly has changed the landscape.

Todd Phillips

landscape reality television

I got nominated for an Academy Award(R) for writing 'Borat.'

Todd Phillips

academy-awards awards writing

You set the tone on the set that you want to see in the film.

Todd Phillips

tone film want

When I was younger I was obsessed with 'Star 80,' and it's just a great movie - I think I saw it three times in the theater.

Todd Phillips

three stars thinking

There's such an awkwardness to most heterosexual male relationships. You see women who are friends, and they kiss each other good-bye, and they're just so much warmer with each other. But there's this thing with guys where, even between best friends, there's a standoffishness.

Todd Phillips

kissing guy bye

Not every movie has to serve as every audience member's need for completion.

Todd Phillips

members audience needs

Comedy is so subjective. You could be in a room with 400 people laughing at a joke and you could just not think it's funny. You're just sitting there like, 'Am I in the twilight zone? Why is everyone laughing?' It's such a personal thing. People have such a personal visceral response to comedy.

Todd Phillips

twilight people thinking

I grew up raised by my mom and my two sisters, so I never had a real male influence in my life. I never really understood heterosexual male relationships.

Todd Phillips

mom real two

You know, because you outline a movie, it kinda comes at the same time. I mean, there are days when you are just concentrating on 'ok, let's worry about just comedy today,' and there are days when you're like 'you know what, we gotta just beef up the story.'. But, it's not like process wise it's that technically separate. One informs the other, so they kinda all happen together ideally.

Todd Phillips

wise worry mean

To make a movie about mayhem, sometimes you have to go to mayhem.

Todd Phillips

mayhem sometimes

I think a lot of American comedies tend to apologize for their bad behavior in the last 10 minutes of the movie.

Todd Phillips

comedy lasts thinking

Music is just one of the tools a director has with which to paint and I think it's one of the most effective.

Todd Phillips

tools directors thinking

Reality television hasn't killed documentaries, because there are so many great documentaries still being made, but it certainly has changed the landscape. There is this breed of gimmicky documentary that is basically a reality show.