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.
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 still am somewhat guarded with my feelings. A lot of writers find it much easier to express themselves on paper. That hasn't changed.
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.
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.
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.
With In the Company of Men, the misogynist label stuck early and firmly. In the end, it probably did hurt the film a bit, because getting women into the theaters was difficult.
My business is can I create a world that's possible and could happen? I think that's the only thing that I have to do, and I think that I have done that each time.
I'm more than open to hope, but I think men and women have a difficult time dealing with each other and often take the low road.
I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films.
I have a healthy view of what one can do with art.
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.