"It felt scary because there was no auditioning, no rehearsing"
About this Quote
The line works because it’s built on negation. Sonnenfeld doesn’t say what they did have - vision, instinct, momentum - because those are harder to justify in a business culture obsessed with receipts. Instead, he frames the moment in terms of missing rituals, the bureaucratic comforts that make creativity feel legitimate. The fear isn’t only aesthetic; it’s social and professional. If it goes badly, there’s no paper trail of due diligence, no pre-emptive scapegoats, no buffer between the decision-maker and the outcome.
Coming from a producer, the subtext sharpens: this is the voice of someone tasked with turning uncertainty into a schedule and a budget. It hints at a production operating on intuition, relationships, or urgency - the kind of leap that can produce a signature, electric result or a headline-grabbing disaster. The scariness is the price of immediacy, and Sonnenfeld’s candor acknowledges how rare that freedom is in a system designed to sand down exactly these edges.
Quote Details
| Topic | Fear |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sonnenfeld, Barry. (n.d.). It felt scary because there was no auditioning, no rehearsing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-felt-scary-because-there-was-no-auditioning-no-100864/
Chicago Style
Sonnenfeld, Barry. "It felt scary because there was no auditioning, no rehearsing." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-felt-scary-because-there-was-no-auditioning-no-100864/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It felt scary because there was no auditioning, no rehearsing." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-felt-scary-because-there-was-no-auditioning-no-100864/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.



