Jonathan Levine Quotes

Jonathan Levine

Profession : Director

Birth : June 18, 1976

Genre is a really great shorthand you can have with an audience. In the same way you can use music to create a connection with an audience, it brings so much of their knowledge of what genre really is to the table. You have a shortcut to connect with them. I really like that.

Jonathan Levine

I really like using genre to tell a story about characters but also use it as a Trojan horse to tell social or cultural commentary. That's where the best stuff, especially in the zombie genre, comes out of.

Jonathan Levine

I really like it when movies take a song and use it to counterpoint a scene.

Jonathan Levine

In rehearsals, I like to create an honest environment that is kinda free and fun.

Jonathan Levine

I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence.

Jonathan Levine

After 'Mandy Lane,' I didn't really know what to do because I didn't know anyone who'd made a feature yet.

Jonathan Levine

I don't often watch something I've done on TV. Usually, I'll change the channel and watch something else.

Jonathan Levine

I have about 100 gigs of music, and I'm always going through thinking about what song I can match to a scene and all that.

Jonathan Levine

Any time I hear certain songs I put in a movie, I have to not listen to them anymore because I associate them with that movie. They take on that association rather than the association I had when I first heard them. So it's kinda bittersweet to put a song in a movie, honestly.

Jonathan Levine

If you know how to shoot a scene, then you know how to shoot an action scene. If you've seen an action movie, and you watched it, and you paid attention to how scenes are constructed and where the camera is and how the camera moves, then you know how to do it.

Jonathan Levine

I really don't like when you see improv scenes go on too long. It really bothers me, even if the jokes are good.

Jonathan Levine

I don't like being pigeonholed at all. It stemmed from after 'Mandy Lane': I was being offered all these horror movies. I love horror movies, but when I dreamed of being a director, it was always doing all sorts of things.

Jonathan Levine

I feel like comedy is where I'm most at ease, but I also have an allergy to silly jokes.

Jonathan Levine

As I continue to evolve as a filmmaker, I'm going to continue to do different stuff.

Jonathan Levine

For me, the best high school movie is, like, 'Fast Times' and what Cameron Crowe is like.

Jonathan Levine

'Warm Bodies' - I was contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 movie. But, like, I wanted it to be PG-13 because it's for younger people, and I don't want them not to be able to see it. I mean, you have to kind of think about the marketplace as well.

Jonathan Levine

I think people will always want to go see a movie, whether it's a comedy and you want to see it and laugh with people, or whatever.

Jonathan Levine

I like to branch out as much as I can, but I feel like the movies that are closest to my heart are 'The Wackness' and '50/50' - the ones that are dramedies that have that human element to them.

Jonathan Levine

I watched 'Return Of The Living Dead.' That one's cool, man. I like that one.

Jonathan Levine

I was intimidated by Malkovich for, like, a couple of days, and then I wasn't. He's awesome. He's so cool. He was so wonderful to work with.

Jonathan Levine