Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroyis an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the first four films of the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films, and directed the fourth film of the franchise. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. Gilroy wrote and directed Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth11 September 1956
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
When I start something, I know people I am working with, it's a project they're interested in.
The people in the Philippines are so extraordinarily nice.
You have to know human behaviour … And the quality of your writing is absolutely capped at your understanding of human behaviour. You’ll never write above what you know about people.
If you think about it, episodic filmmaking has not been something that people have really done.
I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.
What you need to know to direct a movie is [of] such great variety. I've worked with people who were maestros, who know everything. I've worked with people who were empty and lost, who had no clue what they were doing. You wouldn't hire them to paint your apartment. And then there's everything in-between. There's no list of skills you have to have to sit in that chair.
Different people work different ways.
I wanted to try before I got too old to try to do a big movie and I'd been looking for something to do that was interesting enough to spend those two years of my life on.
The screenwriters I know share a few personality traits and one of them is anxiety.
The main thing for me is I really like strong endings. If there's a strong ending, you can take more time in the beginning, your first act can be really quite different.
Corporations are like countries now, there's a king, there are serfs, there's a court, basically everything but moats. They're feudal societies, and there are good ones and bad ones.
I'm trained to button scenes and round things off, and I get rewarded for doing that.
I like movies that pop, that have a little bit of candy on, that freedom to have a little bit of extra fun, but are rooted in real behaviour. Rooted in cause and effect, never violating reality.
I don't like to be crazy on different levels all of the time.