Tom Shadyac
Tom Shadyac
Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyacis an American comedian, director, screenwriter, producer, author and occasional film actor. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the comedy films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty. In 2010, Shadyac departed from past comedic work to write, direct and narrate the documentary I Am, in which he explores his abandonment of a materialistic lifestyle following a bicycle accident in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth11 December 1958
CityFalls Church, VA
CountryUnited States of America
When you do something in a nonviolent way, people will die and there will be casualties. But you're taking a different point of view that has a power.
Communism didn't work because people weren't ready for it, it was corrupt, and because it squelched individualism.
The way I think we were living is an invention. The truth is nobody can own anything. That was an unheard-of concept among indigenous people. We invented that.
I don't consider anything I'm doing as generous. In the new model of the world, I hope people will consider whatever I'm doing as just normal.
I love Frank Capra. He believed in the goodness of people and one man's ability to fight and often triumph.
I don't have any interest in changing a system, because the system will simply get bucked back by people who haven't changed.
I hope people start to look at their lives as the most powerful, creative act they will ever offer this world.
I was paid $8 or $9 million for 'Evan Almighty.' I didn't want that money.
The second we define someone as a Democrat or Republican, it creates a whole set of limitations.
I don't see making films to entertain and making films to inform as separate things.
One of the challenges of the church is to accept humanity for all it is.
Show business is part of a larger culture, a world-wide culture that must make up to the fact that the accumulation of things doesn't make a life necessary any happier or purposeful.
Someone asked me the other day, 'What's the biggest influence on your filmmaking career?' And they started naming filmmakers. I went 'Naw, it's Jesus actually.'
To me, 'Ace Ventura' is as scriptural and sacred as any movie I've ever done because it's childlike.