Touching Lives

A producer friend of mine made an interesting comment to me the other day. He told me that one of his main goals in making films is to touch peoples' lives. The reason I found it so interesting was for two reasons: 1) you don't hear that sentiment often, and 2) that is the exact reason I got into film making myself. (Actually, one of my main daily goals is to make a difference in someone's life, but I’ll save that for another post).

The arts have always had a big impact in my life. It’s amazing to me how much a certain song can change my mood, or a particular movie can change my outlook. I realized this at an early age, and I began to develop the passion to create art that would impact others.

When I decided to join the acting (and film making) world, my main motivation was to be able to create art that would touch someone’s life. I wanted to contribute to the pool of art that had already touched mine. From a young age, artwork ranging from music to film to comics had a tremendous impact on the course of my life. I would connect with a song or a character so deeply that it altered my perception, which (in some cases) ultimately changed the course of my life.

To best describe what I’m trying to say, let me refer to an excerpt from The Intent To Live, a wonderful book by acclaimed acting coach Larry Moss:

“When you [create art], you can affect people in ways you may not ever imagine or know about. One night at a midnight screening of Steven Spielberg’s film ‘ET’, I watched a very angry, lonely teenager sit down in front of me, sink way down into his seat, and look at the screen with complete contempt. His vibrations were so powerfully violent that I wanted to move, but by that time the theater was full. At the start of the film, the teenager shifted noisily in his seat, but soon he stopped moving completely. I saw him go from disdain to amusement to surprise to awe and, finally, to unashamed weeping. Just as the movie was ending, he ran out the theater, embarrassed to be so moved. He didn’t want anybody to see how vulnerable he really was. As vulnerable as I was at eleven when I watched James Dean.”

“That’s what our work can do: we remind people that things can change, that wounds can heal, that people can be forgiven, and that closed hearts can open again.”

I share Larry’s sentiment, and I want to create films that will have that type of affect. Simply, I want to make a difference.

On that note, I will conclude this post (since it’s already my longest to date). But before I go, let me share with you the artwork that has made a difference in my life. Some you may understand immediately, and others you will not get at all - but I assure you, they all touched me deeply (I may explain some of them further in future posts).

• Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia
• Mimi Leder’s film Pay It Forward
• Pink Floyd’s album The Wall
• DC Comic’s Batman (The Dark Knight)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar
• Leiji Matsumoto’s animated series Star Blazers
• Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek (while all of Star Trek had a huge impact on my life, one particular episode Tapestry from The Next Generation was monumental)