"I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first"
About this Quote
“I came… to be an actor” is the clean origin story, the identity he thought he was buying with rent money and auditions. “And I became a film producer first” is the twist that reveals how New York (and, by extension, show business) rewards the people who can make things happen, not just embody them. Producer isn’t a consolation prize here; it’s a survival adaptation, the job you do when the gatekeepers are slow and your bills aren’t.
The subtext is twofold. One, the city’s churn turns artists into entrepreneurs: if the roles aren’t coming, you build the project. Two, there’s a mild irony in “first” - as if the dream didn’t die, it just got delayed behind a more pragmatic form of power. Dunne’s Hollywood lineage and downtown-era proximity to indie filmmaking sharpen the context: this is the period when producing could be a backdoor into authorship, a way to control the narrative when the spotlight isn’t yet yours.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Dunne, Griffin. (2026, January 15). I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-came-to-new-york-to-be-an-actor-and-i-became-a-143926/
Chicago Style
Dunne, Griffin. "I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-came-to-new-york-to-be-an-actor-and-i-became-a-143926/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I came to New York to be an actor and I became a film producer first." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-came-to-new-york-to-be-an-actor-and-i-became-a-143926/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
