You've got to be able to know someone really well to be able to have a row and then also walk away from it and not have it matter, especially in this business. That doesn't mean to say we have many rows but I think the nearest thing to a row would be just flatly disagreeing with something .
Ridley ScottI always say to people when I'm trying to get something going, bringing on other producers or other directors, "You can think of 95 reasons why not to make a movie. You've got to address why you want to make the movie and get it done. Just do it." I tend to live by that rule.
Ridley ScottDigital is a different world because you are sitting at home and a hi tech piece of equipment today is within reach of most people, so they are watching a pretty hi tech version of whatever you've done.
Ridley ScottI believe all of us only use one tenth of our brain. I know people who use one per cent only!
Ridley ScottHarrison is very much part of this one, but really it’s about finding him; he comes in in the third act.
Ridley ScottWhat you do, is you gradually become more and more experienced, and more and more realistic about dramatic tolerance, i.e. about how long the play should be.
Ridley ScottThat's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion... Everyone are tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god.
Ridley ScottThere's great wine from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and, of course, California. But there's nothing like a really great French wine, they're so well balanced. The better the wine, the less you feel the effects I think.
Ridley ScottMPC, Moving Picture Company, they're really excellent, they did the majority of the effects.
Ridley ScottIn my view, the only way to see a film remains the way the filmmaker intended: inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture.
Ridley ScottIt goes back a long way. I wanted to make Tristan + Isolde as my second movie. My first movie was The Duellists. And I was standing in a very romantic part of France looking around me thinking, "My God, this would be perfect for Tristan," and to cut a long story short it never happened because I did Alien instead.
Ridley ScottI was a very earnest, hard working boy at school, but my parents were distressed because I was always bottom of the class. But I wasn't dilatory, I worked like crazy.
Ridley ScottI do like to make films with a political theme, but sometimes it's nice simply to make people laugh. That's the hardest thing to do in fact.
Ridley ScottNowadays, everything's evolved into superheroes and it's boring. If I see one more superhero movie I'm going to shoot myself.
Ridley ScottFilms like Harry Potter and Narnia, I'm sure they'll do another one. The biggest audience of course is the youngsters.
Ridley ScottWell, not totally because over the years I've probably done 2,700 commercials. So, I'm always ticking. And in a way that was a huge advantage because I was able to take my time choosing my film subjects because I wasn't relying on the fear of not being able to work.
Ridley ScottI think one of the successes of Gladiator is how we manage to turn on a dime the character from one thing to another where you believe he is one thing and he is something very different.
Ridley ScottEveryone sniggered because I was going to do a sandal and toga movie. But I knew exactly how to do it and I know how to make Robin Hood.
Ridley ScottPeople say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at.
Ridley ScottA good year for me is when me and my family are in good health. I'm just lucky to have good years doing something I like to do.
Ridley ScottI think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it`s 3% good, 97% stupid.
Ridley ScottSome actors - you work with them once and don't even think about working with them again.
Ridley ScottAudiences are less intrigued, honestly, by battle. They're more intrigued by human relations. If you're making a film about the trappings of the period, and you're forgetting that human relationships are the most engaging part of the storytelling process, then you're in trouble.
Ridley ScottThere's nothing really original. Alien was a B-movie. Five directors passed on it before me. Because I was into Heavy Metal, I read it, and thought, "Wow, I want to do this." I was on a plane to Hollywood in 22 hours. It was a B-movie and was elevated to an A-plus movie by sheer good taste.
Ridley ScottI'm just trying to think what other sequels there were. There was the James Bond movies and not many. I think sequels have become a recent idea of franchising.
Ridley ScottBlade Runner appears regularly, two or three times a year in various shapes and forms of science fiction. It set the pace for what is essentially urban science fiction, urban future and it's why I've never re-visited that area because I feel I've done it.
Ridley ScottYou step forward and make it real for a start. You choose a sensible moment in history. Funnily enough, England was bankrupt and the moment is the death of Richard The Lionheart... Richard takes an arrow in the neck collecting a small debt from a small castle on his way home from the Crusades because he's penniless.
Ridley ScottUsually, when special effects get in the way, it's because the story isn't strong enough. If you don't start with a strong screenplay, it's easy to fall back on special effects, thinking it's going to carry you. But it never works. It's just tiresome.
Ridley ScottSame thing with film, by the time you've finished shooting and you've really been into everything, you've touched up everything in the editing room. You've gone in there and taken little bits from everything.
Ridley Scott