"People always said, I can't believe you made a movie that had no script. Yeah, but here's the thing, if you've got actors who are used to that, and that's what they like to do, they're all good improvisers and they're all people that feel comfortable doing that, then you know, it's not that big of a deal. It's what you do"
About this Quote
Reiner isn’t defending a stunt; he’s puncturing a very Hollywood superstition: that legitimacy begins on the page. The opening line borrows the voice of the doubters - “I can’t believe” - to frame the no-script approach as heresy, then calmly reframes it as craft. His tone is almost aggressively practical. If the right people are in the room, the “risk” evaporates. That’s the tell: he’s not romanticizing chaos, he’s describing a workflow.
The subtext is a quiet argument about authorship. A script traditionally centralizes power with the writer and director; improvisation redistributes it to performers and to the moment. Reiner’s “if you’ve got actors who are used to that” is really a casting philosophy: you’re not hiring interpreters, you’re hiring co-authors with timing, taste, and nerve. That phrase “that’s what they like to do” also flips the usual hierarchy. Instead of actors serving the script, the process serves their strengths.
Context matters because Reiner’s mainstream reputation makes the claim sharper. He’s not an indie provocateur selling anti-structure ideology; he’s a studio-era craftsman saying the rulebook is optional when the ensemble is trained for it. “It’s not that big of a deal” is the rhetorical masterstroke: he shrinks the myth of the script down to logistics and trust. The closing, “It’s what you do,” lands like a shrug and a challenge - stop treating method as morality.
The subtext is a quiet argument about authorship. A script traditionally centralizes power with the writer and director; improvisation redistributes it to performers and to the moment. Reiner’s “if you’ve got actors who are used to that” is really a casting philosophy: you’re not hiring interpreters, you’re hiring co-authors with timing, taste, and nerve. That phrase “that’s what they like to do” also flips the usual hierarchy. Instead of actors serving the script, the process serves their strengths.
Context matters because Reiner’s mainstream reputation makes the claim sharper. He’s not an indie provocateur selling anti-structure ideology; he’s a studio-era craftsman saying the rulebook is optional when the ensemble is trained for it. “It’s not that big of a deal” is the rhetorical masterstroke: he shrinks the myth of the script down to logistics and trust. The closing, “It’s what you do,” lands like a shrug and a challenge - stop treating method as morality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Rob
Add to List
