"No matter what it is, if you get 10 people in the business talking about something, you get 10 different opinions, but you know, they're amazingly well informed"
About this Quote
Woods is skewering a very Hollywood kind of certainty: the industry that runs on gossip, soft power, and shifting alliances still manages to speak with the swagger of expertise. The joke is in the hinge of the sentence. He starts with a shrugging truism about fragmentation - ten people, ten opinions - then lands on the punchline: they are "amazingly well informed". It reads like praise until you hear the bite. In show business, being "well informed" often means being saturated in insider chatter, not necessarily anchored to anything verifiable. Knowledge becomes a social asset, a currency you trade to stay relevant.
The subtext is about status anxiety. When outcomes are unpredictable and tastes are fickle, authority has to be performed. Everyone needs to sound decisive because indecision looks like weakness, yet everyone also needs plausible deniability when the tide turns. Contradictory opinions can coexist because the goal isn't truth; it's positioning. Woods is pointing at an ecosystem where information is plentiful but consensus is impossible, and where the ability to narrate confidently matters more than being right.
Coming from an actor, it also doubles as a defense mechanism: a way to puncture the myth that the business is run by clear-eyed tastemakers. If even the insiders can't agree, then rejection isn't always a referendum on talent. It's a reminder that Hollywood's most consistent product isn't certainty - it's convincing-sounding talk.
The subtext is about status anxiety. When outcomes are unpredictable and tastes are fickle, authority has to be performed. Everyone needs to sound decisive because indecision looks like weakness, yet everyone also needs plausible deniability when the tide turns. Contradictory opinions can coexist because the goal isn't truth; it's positioning. Woods is pointing at an ecosystem where information is plentiful but consensus is impossible, and where the ability to narrate confidently matters more than being right.
Coming from an actor, it also doubles as a defense mechanism: a way to puncture the myth that the business is run by clear-eyed tastemakers. If even the insiders can't agree, then rejection isn't always a referendum on talent. It's a reminder that Hollywood's most consistent product isn't certainty - it's convincing-sounding talk.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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