Harold Ramis Quotes

The first thing I ask when I'm offered a part is, Who's the director? which is something they never understand in Los Angeles.

[The Rum Diary] is a prestigious movie and it's got a great, talented cast, so they wanted to make sure they had the right person for the role, but it was a torturous process. It was painful.

If you cast a film incorrectly, then you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.

In the horror genre, unfortunately you sometimes have the studio tell you, "No, go with more unknown people because it's a scary movie," and I disagree.

If a filmmaker and I don't get along, it's four weeks of your life, so, whatever. With TV, it's six years.

I used Vamps as a casting couch! I pretty much did, because I was casting 'L!fe Happens' while I was on the set of Vamps, and anybody I had ever worked with, I asked to be in this movie.

I couldn't be a director because I couldn't put up with the actors. I don't have the patience. Why, I'd probably kill the actors. Not to mention some of the beautiful actresses.

Casting is really exciting. With 'Twilight,' I wasn't involved at all with the casting in the original. They kept me in the loop, which was great. They'd be like, 'Hey Kristen Stewart's gonna do it' and I was like, 'Really? Awesome.'

I don't watch the movies I make, so I haven't seen 'Footloose' since it came out. You see this young, hungry actor, it's pretty fun. I was the only one they screen tested. It was an attempt by the director and producer to talk the head of the studio into hiring me because they didn't want me.

A film is a chain of very difficult decisions, and I think one of them is to choose an accurate cast.

If a film is being made by an intelligent director, they're going to cast the right guy.

I was briefly in the original version of 'Tombstone,' but I didn't make the final cut because that movie went through a couple of different permutations.

With 'The Last Picture Show,' Peter Bogdanovich brought the script to the company that made it. They liked it, and they gave him the money he needed to make the film. He cast it with the actors that he thought were right for the parts. Now, it's the reverse.

When you do casting in Hollywood, it's always the same question: 'Who is available?'

I really wanted 'NH10' to be made, and being associated with it eased the entire process.

I'm re-teaming with the producers of 'Twilight,' whom I love and who I have an amazing relationship with.

You need to learn that, unless your lead character is written in a way that one of the 20 movie stars want to play him, your movie will not get made.

Bill Murray, we've got to get people worthy to be on the screen with him, as opposed to just a bunch of random… with no disrespect… but a bunch of random local actors.

When 'The Lighthouse,' bizarrely, became the film that people wanted to greenlight, it was really clear that those were the only two people to play the roles. And I knew that they would want to do it.

Taika asked me to do 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' in 2014, and I was like, 'Yeah, I am keen. I'd really enjoy it.' I didn't have to audition. It was quite cool.

Sometimes casting falls in place easily and sometimes it takes a while. Fifty per cent of my job is done when I get the right actors.

I think we all felt it on this movie - crew and cast. You never know when you're making a movie... no one is saying in the middle of Casablanca that this is going to be a classic. The lead actors had turned it down and I think they wound up with B-list actors at the time.

Casting a film is to me one of the most important things next to the writing. If you cast it properly everything takes place very easily. If you cast it improperly you're fighting an uphill battle.

[Tony Richardson ] just liked me, knew I was going to be what he wanted [in The Hotel New Hampshire], and that was the end of it. It was unbelievable.

I feel like casting is the most important aspect of making movies.