This is the kind of advice everyone needs to hear from time to time.
Paul Feig, the comedic genius who has gifted us treasures like Bridesmaids, Freaks and Geeks and The Heat, gave the commencement address at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts graduation ceremony this weekend. While other A-list types might wax poetic about following your dreams, never giving up and paying your dues, Feig kept it simple. The secret formula for making it in Hollywood? Don’t be an a**hole.
The director, who graduated from USC in 1984, left this little nugget of wisdom to stew in the brains of future entertainment heavyweights:
You want to make something great, but be cool while you’re doing it so people will hire you again. Because if you screw up and you’re an asshole, they won’t hire you again. But if you’re nice and you screw up, then they’re like, ‘Let’s give him another shot…’ It will buy you one free pass.
Seems like sounds advice for any career path, especially one that sees you interacting with the same small circle of people year after year (and those people tend to be vain actors, pompous producers and manic directors so you know they can hold a grudge).
Feig shared some other tips he’s learned after decades in the business: be kind to actors (they need it), create an open environment amongst your cast and crew, and, most importantly, forgive your audience for having terrible taste in movies.
“There are no stupid people liking stupid things,” Feig said. “People like what they like, just try to entertain them.”
Hopefully a few of the haters who contributed to Feig’s female-led Ghostbusters reboot becoming the most disliked movie trailer on Youtube hear his message because anyone who voted a movie starring Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Kristen Wiig as the worst of all time above even that god-awful Fantastic Four remake has some troubling a**hole tendencies.
The good people at The Wrap have video of the entire speech, in case you’ve now been moved to hear it in full:
(Via The Wrap)
