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
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.
The writing is really hard. You're alone. It really pulls it out of you. You pull it out of your head. But when you're a director, you're shopping - you're picking this actor, you're picking this scene. It's like the most intense kinetic high-speed shopping of all time. You sit in a chair and it will all come rushing at you like a wind tunnel.
I don't remember writing anything until I wrote my college application.
I think what I've recognized over the years is that I'm very, very bingey, extremely bingey when it comes to writing.
No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.
I spend a lot of time in a sort of free state when I'm writing in the beginning and sketching.
I prefer writing originals.
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.
When I start something, I know people I am working with, it's a project they're interested in.
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.