They thought in terms of: whatever you had that started you at the box office, this was it.

Meaning of the quote

This quote suggests that in the movie industry, people often focused on an actor's initial success at the box office. They believed that whatever made an actor popular and profitable in their first few films was the key to their continued success, and that they should just keep making similar types of movies. This mindset could limit an actor's ability to grow and explore different roles and genres.

About Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper was an American actor and director who began his career as a child actor and successfully transitioned to adult roles and directing in both film and television. He was the youngest person ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film Skippy, and he later starred in the television series The People’s Choice and Hennesey, as well as playing journalist Perry White in the Superman films.

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More quotes from Jackie Cooper

There was only so much television you could do.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

I remember Mr. Mayer very well. He sort of liked to be the father – no, he liked to be treated like you thought he was Daddy, but he didn’t treat you like Daddy at all.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

So I’m in that half-hour business where the most money is, so that eventually I feel like the people that put on the Dupont show, like maybe my artistic effort is going to be a little different.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

So whatever I might have started to learn at that age was all undone by the next director and next crew in the next cheap picture, because I was allowed to get away with murder.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

They thought in terms of: whatever you had that started you at the box office, this was it.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

They kept me in short pants as long as they could, until they were shaving the hair on my legs because it was beginning to photograph.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

To me, the series was the end of the actor, when the series ended.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

A lot of people like to run in plays because it’s a nice, steady job.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

Well, they just don’t know anything else except that one form of their business, acting, and they don’t really want to learn any other part of it, or they would. Directing and producing and putting a show together is very creative, for me.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

From that, I became very anxious to produce something of my own.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

I never say too much about that in public interviews, because it disappoints the public to tell them you’re not that crazy about a property you did that possibly they liked.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

So I felt, well, I’ll make the money and, with the money, do what I want to do.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

A nice, steady job I don’t need that bad. I’m not that satisfied with it.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

There was never any effort made out there to improve the artist.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

They had to start shaving my chin when I was 12 years old because light started to pick it up.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

If it’s boring, then it’s tiring.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

But I want to do good work, after this series.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

I just knew how to do the one thing I did, and whether I did it well or not depended on who the director was.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

The studio didn’t ask them to learn their trade, they just worked them, and when that personality or that gimmick or whatever they had ran dry at the box office, they were dropped and out.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

So if I keep making mistakes on Broadway or tape or film, producing, directing or acting, I can go along and do it – so long as I’m not investing too much capital in these things.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

I would also like to act, once in a while, but not get up every morning at 5:30 or six o’clock and pound into the studio and get home at 7:30 or eight o’clock at night, or act over and over and over every night on Broadway, either.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

People like Spencer Tracy held up because they had the background originally, but to this day they never have changed Mr. Gable’s role, or most of them.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

But the working I would always want to do.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

I hope this series is good work, but it is in the half-hour medium, which is limited to a kind of mediocrity that sponsors are just dying to have right now, and the public, for some reason, is unconsciously demanding.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

So then you have to say to yourself: Do I want to be rich, or do I want to do good work?

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)

In those days, even as a boy, I watched some people that I knew were living way beyond their means.

Jackie Cooper

American actor, director (1922-2011)