Wealth & Money Quote by Joey Lauren Adams

“Definition of an independent film is torture with less money and time” lands because it punctures the indie-movie halo with a single, grimly funny image. Joey Lauren Adams isn’t romanticizing the scrappy underdog; she’s naming the lived reality behind the Sundance mythology. “Torture” is hyperbole, sure, but it’s also a practical description of what happens when every department is under-resourced: long days, thin margins for error, emotional strain that can feel bodily. The punchline is in the modifier. Torture is already the worst-case scenario; making it “with less money and time” suggests indie production isn’t just hard, it’s perversely optimized for stress.

The subtext is an actor’s-eye view of power and precarity. In studio settings, discomfort can at least be buffered by infrastructure: trailers, union protections, second units, coverage, time to reset. On truly lean sets, you get intimacy and creative freedom, but also blurred boundaries. People ask for “one more take” not because it’s artistically necessary, but because there may not be enough film, enough light, enough days to fix it later. Everyone becomes a multitasker, and the glamour gets replaced by triage.

Context matters: Adams emerged in the 1990s indie boom, when “independent” became both a brand and a career pipeline. Her line reads like a veteran correction to the marketing copy. Indie isn’t purity; it’s a trade: autonomy purchased with exhaustion.