"The studios don't seem to foster good writing. They're not so interested in that, but they're more interested in what worked most recently. They're definitely very serious about making money, and that's not a wrong thing, but you don't have to make money the same way all the time"
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Murray’s complaint lands because it’s delivered in the plainspoken cadence of someone who’s been inside the machine long enough to stop romanticizing it. He’s not doing the tired “art vs. commerce” pose; he’s making a narrower, more damning observation: the studios aren’t neutral about writing, they’re structurally disincentivized from valuing it. The real target isn’t greed, it’s risk management disguised as taste.
The phrase “what worked most recently” is the tell. It sketches an industry addicted to recency as proof, where last quarter’s hit becomes this quarter’s creative brief. That mindset doesn’t just encourage sequels and reboots; it makes originality feel like negligence. When Murray says they “don’t seem to foster” good writing, he’s pointing to culture, not individual talent. Great scripts can still sneak through, but the system isn’t designed to cultivate them the way it cultivates IP, brand partnerships, and opening-weekend certainty.
His concession - “making money… that’s not a wrong thing” - is strategic. It inoculates him against the accusation that he’s naive about budgets or audience demand. Then he pivots to the sharper idea: profitability has become stylistically monotonous. “You don’t have to make money the same way all the time” is a quiet rebuke of executive imagination, not audience appetite. Coming from an actor whose career is built on idiosyncratic projects and off-kilter humor, the subtext is clear: the market can handle weird; it’s the pipeline that can’t.
The phrase “what worked most recently” is the tell. It sketches an industry addicted to recency as proof, where last quarter’s hit becomes this quarter’s creative brief. That mindset doesn’t just encourage sequels and reboots; it makes originality feel like negligence. When Murray says they “don’t seem to foster” good writing, he’s pointing to culture, not individual talent. Great scripts can still sneak through, but the system isn’t designed to cultivate them the way it cultivates IP, brand partnerships, and opening-weekend certainty.
His concession - “making money… that’s not a wrong thing” - is strategic. It inoculates him against the accusation that he’s naive about budgets or audience demand. Then he pivots to the sharper idea: profitability has become stylistically monotonous. “You don’t have to make money the same way all the time” is a quiet rebuke of executive imagination, not audience appetite. Coming from an actor whose career is built on idiosyncratic projects and off-kilter humor, the subtext is clear: the market can handle weird; it’s the pipeline that can’t.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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