Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollackwas a United States born film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. His 1985 film Out of Africa won him Academy Awards for directing and producing; he was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?and Tootsie, in the latter of which he also appeared...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth1 July 1934
CountryUnited States of America
I mean, I don't know anything else that I would try to do, but it's a very frustrating thing to do, because you are trying to take what's a fantasy in your head and make it live through the minds of 200 people.
I don't consider myself a teacher of moral and political positions. I don't want to be that. I can't help but have a point of view when I make a film, but my first job is to entertain you.
Reading a novel of a private experience, very, very different, the nature of it is very different.
We talked about Tootsie, the idea in Tootsie is that a man becomes a better man for having been a woman.
People aren't interested in paying $10 or $12 to go to the movies and to be lectured to politically. I'm not either. So I don't try to make those kinds of films.
I didn't believe that I'd ever be lucky enough to be able to make a living as an actor.
Film is a collective experience, as you know.
I mean, movies are like your kids or your fingers and toes or something, it's pretty hard to pick favorites.
Hollywood was set up by a bunch of businessmen. They do not see their job as being philanthropists. I don't think it's a contradiction in terms to attempt to be a good businessman and to also be liberal.
But, I've made films in Japan, in Yugoslavia, all over Europe, all over the United States, Mexico, but not Hollywood.
By that I mean, I think that it is true that politics and political heroes have to satisfy our need to be greater than mortal in some way, and that's led them into creating illusions, sound bites, focus groups that tell you what to do.
There isn't any question that Hollywood is profit driven. Anybody that thinks it isn't is a fool. It's a business. Hollywood was never philanthropy. The only purpose it had was making money; the only purpose it still has is to make money.
I don't know about liberal bias, but people of a liberal mentality are probably attracted in greater numbers to the arts than people of a conservative mentality.
If we were a primitive society, movie stars would be gods.