Tom Shadyac
Tom Shadyac
Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyacis an American comedian, director, screenwriter, producer, author and occasional film actor. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty. In 2010, Shadyac departed from past comedic work to write, direct and narrate the documentary I Am, in which he explores his abandonment of a materialistic lifestyle following a bicycle accident in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth11 December 1958
CityFalls Church, VA
CountryUnited States of America
I was paid $8 or $9 million for 'Evan Almighty.' I didn't want that money.
You can't sow an apple seed and expect to get an avocado tree. The consequences of your life are sown in what you do and how you behave.
The one thing that advances a society is not technology or so-called development; its love - that one principle.
I love Frank Capra. He believed in the goodness of people and one man's ability to fight and often triumph.
I think true success is intrinsic... It's love. It's kindness. It's community.
I wasn't big in the party scene but I did have an excessive lifestyle. I had much more than I needed. I think that was a manifestation of a certain kind of mental illness.
I have not walked away from Hollywood. I'm walking away from the way I personally did business in Hollywood. The budget of whatever movie I do needs to be efficient; it needs to consider what kind of resources we're using and how to be as responsible as possible.
If you bounce a tennis ball against a wall it will come back to you the same way every time. But if you shift the wall a few degrees it will come back another way.
There is no 'I.' That's an illusion we've got to get beyond.
To me, 'Ace Ventura' is as scriptural and sacred as any movie I've ever done because it's childlike.
Someone asked me the other day, 'What's the biggest influence on your filmmaking career?' And they started naming filmmakers. I went 'Naw, it's Jesus actually.'
Show business is part of a larger culture, a world-wide culture that must make up to the fact that the accumulation of things doesn't make a life necessary any happier or purposeful.
One of the challenges of the church is to accept humanity for all it is.
I don't see making films to entertain and making films to inform as separate things.