Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter, playwright and actor. He is most likely known for his first film, based on a play he wrote, In the Company of Men, which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle. He has also written and directed the films Possession, The Shape of Things, The Wicker Man, Some Velvet Morning, Dirty Weekend, and directed the films Nurse Betty, Lakeview Terrace,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth19 March 1963
CountryUnited States of America
I think people are capable of everything I've written. Would they ever do it? I don't know and really don't care, because that's not my business.
I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don't know they're in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate.
It's just often more interesting to write about one or more people who are being awful to other people because it makes for exciting, dramatic fare.
I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.
People have perhaps gotten to the point where for the most part movies are a just bit of escape.
People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.
But for me, it feels like a natural extension of what I've been doing: exploring relationships. Here you have two relationships and we can explore how difficult it is for people to be together.
I don't see my career as this steady building to a point, it's just a path that wanders for me to do whatever I'm interested in doing.
I still am somewhat guarded with my feelings. A lot of writers find it much easier to express themselves on paper. That hasn't changed.
You start as an audience member and create a world you're interested in, and then you move into the telling of those stories, bringing what has interested you as an audience member.
Unrequited love is always a great thing.
I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films.
But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he's in a place where I wouldn't have expected him to be - taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend's wife.
My best male friend is my best friend until he crosses me. We're all protective of the self.