I will say that the idea of a woman being deceptive came from that original discussion with critics and reporters about if woman could do that kind of thing. Evelyn, herself, grew out of the discussions about how capable women are of deceit and lying and manipulation.

About Neil LaBute

Neil N. LaButeis an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, In the Company of Men (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle.

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More quotes from Neil LaBute

I was always looking for the most dramatic emphasis.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Unrequited love is always a great thing.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I was very careful to cast guys who were very good-looking and very fit and who had a certain sense of privilege about them, because with that sense of privilege comes contempt.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

We live in a disposable society. It’s easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name – we call it recycling.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

There is a lot of absurdity sometimes, not just in Mormonism but often in other religions that want to pretend that no bad happens in their church, rather than taking care of what bad does happen.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I will say that the idea of a woman being deceptive came from that original discussion with critics and reporters about if woman could do that kind of thing. Evelyn, herself, grew out of the discussions about how capable women are of deceit and lying and manipulation.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Relationships in general make people a bit nervous. It’s about trust. Do I trust you enough to go there?

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

You start as an audience member and create a world you’re interested in, and then you move into the telling of those stories, bringing what has interested you as an audience member.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

People think my work is therapeutic. I don’t see it that way. It’s not like I’m saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

People have perhaps gotten to the point where for the most part movies are a just bit of escape.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

My business is can I create a world that’s possible and could happen? I think that’s the only thing that I have to do, and I think that I have done that each time.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Just in the past few years – since I’ve been making movies, which isn’t a very long time – you now have a culture that is fascinated and informed about the box office in a way that sometimes filmmakers weren’t even.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I wanted to tell a story that interested me as much in the telling as in the watching.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

But for me, it feels like a natural extension of what I’ve been doing: exploring relationships. Here you have two relationships and we can explore how difficult it is for people to be together.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

In a relationship you have to open yourself up.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

But even with a character like Cary who is relatively outlandish, at the end of the movie he’s in a place where I wouldn’t have expected him to be – taking on the responsibility of a woman who is pregnant and who used to be his best friend’s wife.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

If we put the camera on ourselves, our friends and neighbors, we’ll come up with some scary stuff.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I have a healthy view of what one can do with art.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I would be more frightened as a writer if people thought my movies were like science fiction.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I think the more the actor lets you know what he thinks of the character, the less the audience cares – like a comedian who laughs at his own jokes.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

We humans are a fairly barbarous bunch.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

With In the Company of Men, the misogynist label stuck early and firmly. In the end, it probably did hurt the film a bit, because getting women into the theaters was difficult.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

My best male friend is my best friend until he crosses me. We’re all protective of the self.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Without In The Company of Men, I could still be teaching, so who knows if this would’ve existed.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Everyone has a story.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

And I’ve got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I’m more than open to hope, but I think men and women have a difficult time dealing with each other and often take the low road.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I didn’t choose BYU, I like to think it chose me.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I think Christine and Chad are on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Christine is a model victim, and Chad is a model perpetrator, and Howard is closer to the middle.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Everybody has the ability to be manipulative, to be hateful and deceitful.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

Everyone has a little bit of Howard and Chad in them. I think there’s Christine in all men as well.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I make movies I want to see.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

I wanted to make these people real, not like they were in a painting. Like these are people who don’t know they’re in a period movie. Those concerns are incredibly immediate.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

First I would probably place men at the bottom of the food chain. On a grander scale, I would say they’re reacting to change. Feminism has got to be part of that.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director

And with Aaron, I’d have to find a reason not to work with him.

Neil LaBute

American writer and director