Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks
Albert Lawrence Brooksis an American actor, filmmaker and comedian. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's Broadcast News. His voice acting credits include Marlin in Finding Nemoand Finding Dory, and recurring guest voices for The Simpsons, including Russ Cargill in The Simpsons Movie. Additionally, he has directed, written, and starred in several comedy films, such as Modern Romance, Lost in America, and Defending Your Lifeand is the author of 2030: The Real Story of What...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth22 July 1947
CityBeverly Hills, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When you improvise on the spot, people are very reluctant to have soft moments or quiet moments or sad moments because they're trying to fill up the spaces. So they always go towards, "How come you're late?! You're supposed to have my shirt ready! You call this a dry cleaner?!" That's what happens. That's why improvising on the spot gets very dicey.
So I think if you're happy with your brain, you're powerful.
Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?
I'm not a big fan of the post-Armageddon stories, where Denzel Washington is walking around in a torn coat.
You make friends with older people and you always feel young no matter what.
All improv turns into anger. All comedy improv basically turns into anger, because that's all people know how to do when they're improvising. If you notice shows that are improvising are generally people yelling at each other.
When I audition, I understand what it takes and the insecurities that come with it. If I do anything, I put actors at ease. I used to tell directors who weren't actors, the best thing they could do was take an acting class for a couple of months. Just to understand.
If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.
What naturally stops you making the film is there is no more money in the budget. That's really what it is. If you had an unlimited budget, if you were a billionaire and you financed your own movies, then you can either date, because you can sit in an editing room for six years, like Howard Hughes, and never finish anything.
I was in Kashmir last weekend. Went to visit one of my sweaters.
It's fear. Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything. Real feeling, true happiness, real joy, they can't get through that fog. But you lift it and buddy you're in for the ride of your life.
When I was younger, I wasn't concentrating on good days. I was managing a career and trying to have a good year. It would always 'lead' to something, which never leads to anything except death, where everything leads to. And then as I got older, and then I had my kids and everything, I began to appreciate a great Wednesday.
I was allowed to film in the biggest mosque in India and when I told the imam the plot of the movie he started to laugh,
The world really changed after 9/11, not just in the tragic way, but in every way. So it took me a couple of years to even understand how my art form I could process any of this. When the world changed, eliciting laughter with subjects that were funny to me before 9/11 just didn't seem good enough.