Ridley Scott
English film director and producer
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with Alien (1979), his most famous works are sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Hannibal (2001), Matchstick Men (2003), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), American Gangster (2007), Robin Hood (2010), and Prometheus (2012).
QuotesEdit
- How could that have happened? ... Even if it was a hand of God … I’d read – and I don’t know how they know this – but in approximately 3000 BC there was a massive undersea volcano and earthquake, which created a tsunami wave that had to have been a couple of hundred feet high. Just off the heel of Italy. Diagonally across you’re staring right up the mouth of the Nile, so I’m wondering if that had anything to do with that.
- On the parting of the Red Sea in the tales of Moses, as quoted in "Exodus: Gods And Kings - How Ridley Scott And Christian Bale Are Rebooting The Biblical Epic" at Yahoo Movies (16 September 2014)
Esquire interview (2012)Edit
- I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds.
- I do despair. That's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion. … Can you think of a good one? A just and kind and tolerant religion? … Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god.
- I honestly wasn't paying attention in school when I was told the story of Moses. Some of the details of his life are extraordinary.
- Just stare up at the stars at night, and you'll have those corny thoughts like we all do. How can you look at the galaxy and not feel insignificant? How on earth can we be it? It doesn't make sense. … It doesn't matter how much faith you have or don't have. I just don't buy the idea that we're alone. There's got to be some form of life out there.
New York Times interview (2013)Edit
- I think he writes the truth. Because life is like that most of the time in some shape or form, whether it’s illness or the end of the world. Cormac’s a writer’s writer. You read his writing and think, I can do that, and then you sit down and try. And you try, dude.
- On the relentlessly brutal tone of the works of screenwriter Cormac McCarthy
- Most novelists are desperate to do what I do.
- Universe to me is, if you’d like, the final character. Your landscape in a western is one of the most important characters the film has. The best westerns are about man against his own landscape. I think people have lost the ability to do that.
IGN interview (2017)Edit
- Oh, it was always my thesis theory. It was one or two people who were relevant were... I can't remember if Hampton agreed with me or not. But I remember someone had said, “Well, isn't it corny?” I said, “Listen, I'll be the best fucking judge of that. I'm the director, okay?” So, and that, you learn -- you know, by then I'm 44, so I'm no fucking chicken. I'm a very experienced director from commercials and The Duellists and Alien. So, I'm able to, you know, answer that with confidence at the time, and say, “You know, back off, it's what it's gonna be.” Harrison, he was never -- I don't remember, actually. I think Harrison was going, “Uh, I don't know about that.” I said, “But you have to be, because Gaff, who leaves a trail of origami everywhere, will leave you a little piece of origami at the end of the movie to say, ‘I've been here, I left her alive, and I can't resist letting you know what's in your most private thoughts when you get drunk is a fucking unicorn!’” Right? So, I love Beavis and Butthead, so what should follow that is “Duh.” So now it will be revealed [in the sequel], one way or the other.
- On the subject of Rick Deckard from Blade Runner being a replicant
External linksEdit
- Ridley Scott on IMDb
- Ridley Scott at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile
- Ridley Scott Associates (RSA)
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- Video interview with STV's Grant Lauchlan, discussing Kingdom of Heaven and Blade Runner
- Times Interview with Ridley Scott (5 October 2006)
- Total Film: Interview with Ridley Scott (15 July 2007)
- RSA Films (Ridley and Tony Scott's advertising production company (30 November 2007)