Once we figured out we needed to make it close enough to real life that we could comment on real life but far enough that we wouldn't inspire people's anger about everyday things, that's when we really felt like we had found our lane, we were able to use comedy as a tool to comment and maybe even make people think about stuff.

Jonathan Levine

Categorized in : Entertainment

There are things that I can tell my friends that I just can't tell my family, just as far as how I'm feeling about things. My friends know me the best in a certain way. I just think old friends are really, really important.

Jonathan Levine

best me family old-friends

I'm always walking around with headphones on, creating my own soundtracks to whatever the day is. I think I have a poppy sensibility.

Jonathan Levine

day think my-own walking

I always look at myself as kind of a work in progress. I hope that's not always the case. But for me, every film is a learning experience.

Jonathan Levine

myself learning hope work

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

camera you action attention

I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus.

Jonathan Levine

every back bus movie

I like zombie movies, and I like genre movies a lot. To watch. Less so to make, I think. But I grew up on that stuff. I would just grow up watching a lot of horror movies, a lot of slasher movies and then zombie movies.

Jonathan Levine

grow movies watching think

I like a pretty relaxed, fun set. Everyone knows they can bring whoever they want and hang out.

Jonathan Levine

everyone like want fun

I'm a writer and director. And the movie I've seen a million times is 'Coming Home,' directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern.

Jonathan Levine

coming director coming-home home

I've been a huge fan of Hal Ashby forever. And I think that the distinctive thing about 'Coming Home' is the love story, and how - kind of emotionally real it is, and how these two characters allow each other to see their - kind of vulnerabilities. And it's great because it's a love story that's not really that cheesy, either.

Jonathan Levine

great think home love

I definitely think for up and coming filmmakers, people graduating from film school, people that want to do their own movies, horror movies are a great way to go.

Jonathan Levine

great think people school

Usually, the kills are almost Wile E. Coyote kind of things in horror movies.

Jonathan Levine

horror-movies movies things horror

Right after 'The Wackness' came out, it was a really exciting time, and then it was a bit disappointing when it came out. Even though not that many people saw it, I was still getting offered some movies. I was thinking that people would just stop calling me since it didn't do very well at the box office.

Jonathan Levine

me time people thinking

As a director, there's no natural career progression. So after 'The Wackness,' which was very personal to me, I was very, very picky about what I was going to do next, to the point where I think that I was almost too picky.

Jonathan Levine

career personal think me

'Warm Bodies' was a more long-term thing; I had to write the script, who knew if it was every really going to happen, if I'd find the right actors, and so on, so I grabbed '50/50' because I just fell in love with it.

Jonathan Levine

happen find warm love

I was actually shooting 'Warm Bodies' on the day that '50/50' came out, which I don't recommend to other filmmakers because I was sort of a wreck. Actually, it was good for me, because I had work to do, so I couldn't obsess all day and be checking how '50/50' was doing!

Jonathan Levine

day good me work

I used to obsess on critical reactions to my films, and it's really not a healthy way to live your life, so my new take on it is simply, 'I hope people like it!' I'm not going to be looking at the tomato meter for at least a year! I was very lucky on '50/50' that most critics really liked it.

Jonathan Levine

looking hope life people

I think that's the great thing about zombies, is, you know, going back to even 'Night of the Living Dead,' they've always been a tool for kind of holding up a mirror to us and showing us something about ourselves that we might not otherwise know.

Jonathan Levine

mirror great you night

I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out.

Jonathan Levine

start you character school

It's rare that movies can sort of capture the tone of life; movies always feel like they have to be one thing or another.

Jonathan Levine

movies feel capture life

I kind of viewed '50/ 50' and 'Warm Bodies' both as my next films after 'The Wackness.' In my head, I was just like, 'I'll try the big, fun, adventure-weird movie, and I'll do the small, heartfelt comedy-drama, and one of them will probably work out, and I'll get to work more.'

Jonathan Levine

will small work fun