Daily Inspiration Quote by Bill Condon

Condon is arguing for biography as ambush, not victory lap. The "greatest hits approach" is the familiar, studio-approved version of a life: awards, scandals with clean edges, the canon of anecdotes that flatten a person into a brand. By contrast, his "side angle" is a director's move, not a historian's. You don’t enter a character through their résumé; you slip in through the room next door: an odd relationship, a minor obsession, a moment that seems irrelevant until it isn’t. It’s the difference between a highlight reel and a scene.

The intent is practical and aesthetic. Practically, it’s how you avoid the trap of reverence that haunts films about famous people, especially artists. A "greatest hits" biopic is a checklist with costumes; it tells you what happened, not who was there. A side angle gives Condon permission to focus on behavior rather than milestones, to let personality leak out through texture: how someone handles control, desire, shame, humor, cruelty.

The subtext is also a quiet critique of audience consumption. We’re trained to want the marquee moments because they confirm the myth we already bought. Condon is betting that the truer revelation sits in the peripheral: the interpersonal, the unflattering, the mundane. In his world, truth isn’t delivered by the big speeches; it’s smuggled in through framing, omission, and the telling details that a public narrative would rather edit out.