Gary Ross

Gary Ross (born 3 November 1956) is an American writer, director, and actor, most famous for directing Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and The Hunger Games.

Where am I going to see colors like that? Must be awfully lucky to see colors like that. I bet they don't even know how lucky they are.

This movie is about the fact that personal repression gives rise to larger political oppression.… That when we're afraid of certain things in ourselves or we're afraid of change, we project those fears on to other things, and a lot of very ugly social situations can develop.

Quotes

You know, everyone thinks we got this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn't. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess in a way, we fixed each other, too.

• I wish I were big.
  • Big (1988)

• There are certain things you should expect from a President. I ought to care more about you than I do about me... I ought to care more about what's right than I do about what's popular. I ought to be willing to give this whole thing up for something I believe in.
  • Dave (1993)

• This movie is about the fact that personal repression gives rise to larger political oppression.… That when we're afraid of certain things in ourselves or we're afraid of change, we project those fears on to other things, and a lot of very ugly social situations can develop.
  • On his film Pleasantville (1998), as quoted in Review of Pleasantville by Edward Johnson-Ott

• Writing is all about the preservation of your own voice. So if you give that voice away by guessing what you think and you think and you think as you go, you’ll have less to say and then it’ll go away completely!
  • Dreams on Spec (2007)

• I love almost all of Stanley Kubrick, there’s almost no Stanley Kubrick I don’t love. I love Lolita, I love Dr. Strangelove. I love A Clockwork Orange, obviously. I even like a lot of Barry Lyndon (laughs). And early stuff, like The Killing and Paths of Glory. … It’s ridiculous. Look, he made the best comedy ever, he may have made one of the best science fiction movies ever, he made the best horror movie ever. I couldn’t watch the end of The Shining. I went through half The Shining for years before I could finish, because I’m a writer and as soon as he starts writing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” I had to turn it off. It’s almost like Picasso in that he mastered so many different genres. … he took his time and patience and he had a crew of like 18 people. They were very handmade movies these were not large behemoths that he did; they were very thoughtful and his editing process was long. He’s kind of without peer really. If I was gonna settle on a director, probably Kubrick.
  • Response after being asked if he had a favorite director in "Director Gary Ross Talks The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Deleted Scenes, and a Lot More" by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub at Collider (22 March 2012)

• I’m trying to capture what was visceral in the books, which is your first-person present tense narrative, and that’s gonna require a certain amount of subjectivity. In order to be in Katniss’ point of view and in her shoes — what being in a character’s point of view is, is restricting the information that the audience has to what that character has, and not being writer omniscient. I’m not cutting from place-to-place, I’m moving in this serpentine, destabilized path as Katniss wanders through this world. That’s not only true in the shooting style, it’s also true in the editing style. … This was a very conscious decision to create a very subjective style because the books are so subjective, they’re first-person and they’re urgent and you see the world as she sees the world, so that was the reason for it.
  • On his style of filming The Hunger Games, as quoted in "Director Gary Ross Talks The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Deleted Scenes, and a Lot More" by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub at Collider (22 March 2012)

Pleasantville (1998)

• Must be awfully lucky to see colors like that. I bet they don't even know how lucky they are.
  • Bill Johnson

• There are some places … that the road doesn't go in a circle. There are some places where the road keeps going.
  • David Wagner/Bud Parker

• Huck and — and the slave.... they … they were going up the river, trying to get free…. and — in trying to get free … they see that they're sort of free already…
  • David Wagner/Bud Parker

• I know you want it to stay pleasant around here, but — there are so many things … that are so much better. Like silly, or sexy, or dangerous … or brief. And every one of those things is in you all the time, if you just have the guts to look for them.
  • David Wagner/Bud Parker

Seabiscuit (2003)

• He was a small horse, barely fifteen hands. He was hurting, too. There was a limp in his walk, a wheezing when he breathed. Smith didn't pay attention to that, he was looking the horse in the eye.

• You know, everyone thinks we got this broken down horse and fixed him, but we didn't. He fixed us. Every one of us. And I guess in a way, we fixed each other, too.

Quotes about Ross

• Gary Ross is amazing. He’s just — he always has a billion ideas of what he wants, but has a very clear perspective also; he just makes it work. He really does. He’s trying different things and making everything look amazing.
  • Liam Hemsworth, as quoted in "Q&A : Liam Hemsworth on The Hunger Games and Losing Weight for His Role" by Krista Smith in Vanity Fair (8 November 2011)

• Ambitious, ingenious and visually breathtaking, Pleasantville is a rarity in contemporary filmmaking; a fully-realized vision that succeeds on multiple levels. Writer and director Gary Ross has crafted a wondrous experience that satisfies as a comedy, a fantasy, a drama and a parable. Movies don't get much better than this.
  • Edward Johnson-Ott, in Review of Pleasantville by at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb

External links

• Gary Ross at IMDb