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Daily Inspiration Quote by Daniel Berrigan

"Well, I've been in several films including documentaries, but the big blockbuster, I was hired as advisor to the actors, I was trying to make Jesuits out of them"

About this Quote

The line lands like a sly confession from a man who spent his life turning institutions inside out. Daniel Berrigan isn’t bragging about proximity to fame; he’s puncturing it. He starts with the mundane CV flex ("several films") and then undercuts the glamour of "the big blockbuster" by reframing his role as essentially pastoral mischief: an advisor trying to "make Jesuits out of them". The joke works because it’s impossible. You don’t convert actors into Jesuits on a set between takes. That impossibility is the point.

Berrigan’s subtext is a critique of performance itself. Actors are professionals at adopting a role; Jesuits, in his telling, are meant to be people whose role is a discipline, a vocation, a way of being that resists the easy costume change. By pairing Hollywood’s most visible artifice with the Society of Jesus - famous for rigor, intellect, and obedience - he highlights a cultural hunger for authenticity that cinema can mimic but not supply.

Context matters: Berrigan was a priest-activist who treated public life as a moral stage, from civil rights to the Catonsville Nine and antiwar resistance. That history gives the quip an edge. He’s not naive about spectacle; he knows how movements, martyrdom, and media all become narratives. So the humor isn’t anti-art. It’s a warning about how quickly conviction gets turned into "content" - and a reminder that his real project was always formation, not fame.

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TopicMovie
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Berrigan, Daniel. (2026, January 15). Well, I've been in several films including documentaries, but the big blockbuster, I was hired as advisor to the actors, I was trying to make Jesuits out of them. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-ive-been-in-several-films-including-167260/

Chicago Style
Berrigan, Daniel. "Well, I've been in several films including documentaries, but the big blockbuster, I was hired as advisor to the actors, I was trying to make Jesuits out of them." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-ive-been-in-several-films-including-167260/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Well, I've been in several films including documentaries, but the big blockbuster, I was hired as advisor to the actors, I was trying to make Jesuits out of them." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-ive-been-in-several-films-including-167260/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Daniel Berrigan (May 9, 1921 - April 30, 2016) was a Clergyman from USA.

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