Lynn Shelton Quotes

• I'm drawn again and again to relationships between people who really, really want to connect and just can't get out of their own way to do it.

  Lynn Shelton

  People, Want, Way

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• All we really want in life is to connect to other human beings, and when you desperately want to connect physically to one specific human being and you can't? That's something I find compelling.

  Lynn Shelton

  Want, Life Is, Compelling

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• My mom was in education, and I remember reading in one of her books about multiple intelligences - this whole theory about how there are all these different ways you can be intelligent, like eight or 10 of them or something. And one of them is emotional.

  Lynn Shelton

  Mom, Book, Reading

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• In the collaborative process, you create a real intimacy; everybody ends up sharing personal stories and personal observations and their philosophies, their psychological side. By the time you get to set, it just creates such a sense of trust and intimacy between the director and the actors. It's really, really great.

  Lynn Shelton

  Philosophy, Real, Intimacy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• For me, I want to see diversity in storytelling sources because we live in a very diverse society, and the stories are for the whole society. That's really important. For me, as a female filmmaker, when I was out on the festival circuit on 2006, I felt like such a freaking anomaly - an oddity.

  Lynn Shelton

  Oddities, Diverse Society, Diversity

  "Sundance Interview with Lynn Shelton - Director of Touchy Feely". Interview with Melissa Silverstein, womenandhollywood.com.

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• We're all flawed, and we all make mistakes, and we all have weaknesses. And those are the kind of people I want to see onscreen, the ones that feel like real flesh-and-blood human beings and not the weird, whitewashed, Hollywood stand-ins for people with the rough edges sanded off that I can't connect to because they just don't resonate with me.

  Lynn Shelton

  Real, Mistake, Blood

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• I'd love for there to be a situation - a world in which that's just not even a question anymore. We are all filmmakers - different stripes, genders, sexual orientations, colors - and our work can be taken on its own terms. I'm really looking forward to that day.

  Lynn Shelton

  Taken, Color, Stripes

  "Sundance Interview with Lynn Shelton - Director of Touchy Feely". Interview with Melissa Silverstein, www.indiewire.com. February 5, 2013.

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• It feels to me like everyone is going to do their best work when they feel emotionally safe.

  Lynn Shelton

  Safe, Best Work, Feels

  Source: collider.com

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• I had a background in theater as an actor, and then a photographer, and then as an experimental filmmaker and editor.

  Lynn Shelton

  Editors, Actors, Photographer

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• I feel like this is the way I was meant to interact with acting. Which is as a director, and helping, working with actors to find their way. Facilitating their performances is so satisfying for me.

  Lynn Shelton

  Acting, Directors, Actors

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• Flaws make us all human, and you're rooting for characters because of those flaws. It's ageless if you're interested in relationships and the way people can or can't relate to each other.

  Lynn Shelton

  Character, People, Way

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• There's so much great TV and I always thought it would be such a fun little sideway to make money and then not have to worry about my films making a lot of money.

  Lynn Shelton

  Fun, Worry, Would Be

  Source: collider.com

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• I can't wait to do a fully improvised script again, to find people who are really comfortable and into it. It's about the capabilities of the people you're working with, what are their strengths and weaknesses. Some of the most brilliant actors need the spine of the text to work off of, and there's no shame in that; they're actors, not writers.

  Lynn Shelton

  People, Waiting, Weakness

  "Lynn Shelton On ‘Touchy Feely,’ Improvisation & Having Catherine Keener As A Casting Director". Interview with Oliver Lyttelton, www.indiewire.com. May 2, 2013.

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• Hmm, can I be obvious and say there is probably a double standard for male vs. female directors? Sadly, I think that's actually the case. And it probably stems from the fact that there are proportionately so many fewer women directors than men ones that each project is perhaps more closely scrutinized for its content.

  Lynn Shelton

  Men, Thinking, Directors

  "Interview with Lynn Shelton, Director of Humpday". Interview with Melissa Silverstein, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 08, 2009.

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• Before adolescence I had an incredible voice. Like when I was 12, 13, 14 - I was taking acting classes, I was painting, I was making music, I was taking photographs. I was kind of exploding creatively, and then something about adolescence really just ground that out of me.

  Lynn Shelton

  Class, Voice, Acting

  "Filmmaker Lynn Shelton: ‘There’s This Real Deliciousness To Being Able To Do Exactly What You Want To Do’" by Lori Fradkin, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 05, 2013.

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• Making art, being creative, is risky, especially for actors, but everybody on the set is being creative. You're putting yourself out there with ideas, and to have your brain be free of stress so that it can actually do its best work, it feels like you want to have a real sense of intimacy and connection and trust with everybody.

  Lynn Shelton

  Art, Real, Stress

  Source: collider.com

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• Although humor is present in every one of my films, it has always been used as a way to make the darker, heavier stuff in my stories more palatable. I never set out to make 'Humpday' a comedy.

  Lynn Shelton

  Stories, Stuff, Way

  "Interview with Lynn Shelton, Director of Humpday". Interview with Melissa Silverstein, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 08, 2009.

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• I can connect with whoever I want to connect with in the world. And I can also write my own script. I don't have to follow rules. I can sort of just be unconventional.

  Lynn Shelton

  Writing, World, Unconventional

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• So many people have said this, but it's true: 95 percent of what I do as a director is casting and getting people who can bear the load of what you're asking them to do and creating this emotionally safe environment.

  Lynn Shelton

  Safe Environment, Creating, People

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• I hope to keep working with television. I wouldn't mind doing more.

  Lynn Shelton

  Mind, Television

  Source: collider.com

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• The first time I ever intersected with the quote unquote industry or Hollywood or being given a paid job as a director all came because of the reputation I got coming out of Sundance as a veteran Sundance filmmaker.

  Lynn Shelton

  Jobs, Directors, Hollywood

  Source: collider.com

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• I just really feel so grateful to Sundance because I've always been an artist and I've never been able to make a living at being an artist until Sundance.

  Lynn Shelton

  Grateful, Artist, Able

  Source: collider.com

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• I always wanted the actors to feel really free to leave the words behind if they weren't working, reword lines, if they felt like there was impulse they wanted to follow, if it was taking the scene out of order or adding something, that you should always feel free to do that.

  Lynn Shelton

  Order, Actors, Lines

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm not one of those directors who can just kind of walk away from the edit room and come back and check in.

  Lynn Shelton

  Directors, Rooms, Kind

  Source: collider.com

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• I like being able to just turn the microscope on a small number of people, get to know them, drop into their lives for a period of time.

  Lynn Shelton

  Small Numbers, People, Able

  Source: collider.com

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