Nancy Meyers
Nancy Meyers
Nancy Jane Meyersis an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She is the writer, producer and director of several big-screen successes, including The Parent Trap, Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday, It's Complicatedand The Intern. Her second film as director, What Women Want, was at one point the most successful film ever directed by a woman, taking in $183 million in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth8 December 1949
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
I've always been blessed with confidence. I am a glass-half-full person. My first movie, 'Private Benjamin,' got turned down by every studio until the very last one, but I just kept thinking, 'Why are you people not seeing that this is a hit movie? What is wrong with you?'
I don't diet, I don't do fads, I've just decided to not eat carbs. So no more bread and pasta for the month. I can't live without chocolate, though. I've always got a bar in my handbag. It has to be 72%. Any less and it's too sweet, any more and it's inedible. Like I said, I'm very particular.
I don't want to be known as the one who makes movies for older people.
My movies are not messed with by the studios.
I don't shoot movies quickly because I get a lot of coverage and a lot of angles, so we have all the pieces in the editing. I do a lot of takes, but it's because I'm looking for something.
Sometimes when I'm writing I'll play Cole Porter, just because the rhythms and the lyrics are so perfect that it's like having a smart partner in the room. I have a huge collection of music that I listen to when I'm writing, and I also prepare a lot of music before I start directing. I put it all onto an iPod that I have with me on the set. It's helpful to the actors, because for an emotional scene, I'll play it and say, this is how it feels, to keep us in the zone.
There's this perception that if you worry a lot and if you look really busy and stressed out then you'll be more successful. You talk about how little sleep you get and how tensed you are and how you're not getting the appreciation you deserve.
There's a hardening of the culture. Reality TV has lowered the standards of entertainment. You're left wondering about the legitimacy of relationships. It's probably harder to entertain the same people with a more classic form of writing, and romantic comedies are a classic genre.
I like to eat meals I will remember. Otherwise, whats the point?
Being part of a team helped me so much. I know the fact that there was a man in the room with me all those years made the medicine go down. I had made the companies money. I didn't have to start, like a lot of women, from ground zero. My path was not the same as a woman starting out by herself.
I really wanted to be a writer.
Movies don't look hard, but figuring it out, getting the shape of it, getting everybody's character right and having it be funny, make sense and be romantic, it's creating a puzzle. Yes, having been a writer for so long, I have an awareness of when things are going awry, but it doesn't mean I know how to fix them.