"It's such a great thing to work with people and not have a plan"
About this Quote
Creative people love to mythologize chaos, and Thomas Lennon is doing it with a grin. "It's such a great thing to work with people and not have a plan" sounds like a throwaway actor quip, but it smuggles in a real professional philosophy: the best moments on set often arrive when nobody is trying to force them.
Coming from an actor-comedian, the line doubles as a subtle flex. Lennon has lived inside ensembles where the "plan" can be a straitjacket: rigid blocking, over-scripted jokes, a director chasing coverage instead of chemistry. Praising the absence of a plan is really praising trust - in scene partners, in timing, in the shared ability to rescue a moment that isn’t landing. It’s also an endorsement of play, the skill most production schedules pretend they can afford while silently needing it to save the day.
The subtext is less "be unprofessional" than "leave oxygen in the room". Comedy, especially, punishes certainty. A plan can lock everyone into the safest version of a scene; no plan invites risk, which is where surprise lives. Lennon’s phrasing makes that sound breezy, but there’s craft behind it: improvisation isn’t randomness, it’s responsiveness.
Culturally, it’s a small jab at the industrial side of entertainment, where IP-driven projects arrive pre-decided. Lennon’s line argues for the older, messier ideal of collaboration: the set as a place where people discover the thing together, not execute it.
Coming from an actor-comedian, the line doubles as a subtle flex. Lennon has lived inside ensembles where the "plan" can be a straitjacket: rigid blocking, over-scripted jokes, a director chasing coverage instead of chemistry. Praising the absence of a plan is really praising trust - in scene partners, in timing, in the shared ability to rescue a moment that isn’t landing. It’s also an endorsement of play, the skill most production schedules pretend they can afford while silently needing it to save the day.
The subtext is less "be unprofessional" than "leave oxygen in the room". Comedy, especially, punishes certainty. A plan can lock everyone into the safest version of a scene; no plan invites risk, which is where surprise lives. Lennon’s phrasing makes that sound breezy, but there’s craft behind it: improvisation isn’t randomness, it’s responsiveness.
Culturally, it’s a small jab at the industrial side of entertainment, where IP-driven projects arrive pre-decided. Lennon’s line argues for the older, messier ideal of collaboration: the set as a place where people discover the thing together, not execute it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Team Building |
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