Laura Ziskin
Laura Ziskin
Laura Ellen Ziskin was an American film producer, known as the executive producer of the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman, and as the first woman to produce the Academy Awards telecast alone, producing the 74th Academy Awards in 2002 and the 79th Academy Awards in 2007...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFilm Producer
Date of Birth3 March 1950
CitySan Fernando Valley, CA
CountryUnited States of America
describe everybody liked putting
I describe myself as someone who was always putting on a show, even when I was a little girl. I wanted to be an actress but I liked organizing everybody and putting on plays. I was a producer.
thinking kind problem
I think being a producer makes you a problem solver, so you kind of go, "Well there's a problem. What do we do? How do we solve it?"
skills actors producers
I had very few skills. If I hadn't been a producer I'd been a failed actor. That would have been really disastrous.
baby thinking years
I think it's hard for women to be directors, particularly in the feature world because, biologically, your peak career-making years are also your peak baby-making years, and that's just the truth. And those are choices women have to make.
play elements demand
Most movies don't have the ability to find an audience. So the movie plays out very quickly in a lot of theaters to get the biggest gross. So that demands that we make things that are hits before they open. So they have to have the elements, they have to be franchises.
cancer survival causes
Cancer is everybody's cause.
ideas people together
What's great about making movies is the sort of additive process of bringing people together and having an idea and watching the idea be added to and at the end you have this thing. It's really a collaborative experience.
proud able produce
You know I'm proud that I was able to develop and produce movies that I wanted to make.
cancer breast-cancer breasts
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004.
excited projects filmmaker
For me as a filmmaker, I do the projects I'm really excited about.
stars two done
In some ways, the most rewarding thing I've done were the two times that I did the Oscars, particularly the first time because it was really like the ultimate "Let's put on a show," with every great movie star in the world available.
philosophy views ideas
Movies are arguably the most influential, important medium in the world. They have a tremendous cultural impact. Because women are now making movies, then women's ideas, philosophy, point of view will seep into that culture. And that's never happened in history. Ever, ever, ever. We can't even see the impact of that yet.
cancer epidemics disease
When I was diagnosed I didn't know how epidemic cancer was. You find out that everybody you know is touched by this disease.
girl cancer hero
In my world, the hero always defeats the villain, the boy always gets the girl, and cancer is no more,