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
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 felt, if I'm going to take on some of the most overdone material, which is men and women and affairs and betrayal of friends, I had better have a new take on it. I think my films come from a desperation not to be boring.
Everyone has a little bit of Howard and Chad in them. I think there's Christine in all men as well.
I didn't choose BYU, I like to think it chose me.
I think Christine and Chad are on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Christine is a model victim, and Chad is a model perpetrator, and Howard is closer to the middle.
I think the more the actor lets you know what he thinks of the character, the less the audience cares - like a comedian who laughs at his own jokes.
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.
It's funny how that comes up, because sometimes I'll write something and I'll think, I don't know if that's a film or a play, and then other things I feel very strongly about them just being plays - they feel very theatrical to me.
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.