Try driving the streets of Los Angeles without seeing a billboard depicting a film with a lead actor holding a gun. It's almost as if guns are harmless props used to bring out the cheekbones and jawline of the screen star.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
On one hand, as a filmmaker, I don't want to make a movie with guns everywhere.
I just have that sort of face and when I got to Hollywood in the late '70s they took one look at me and said, 'Get him a gun. You definitely should be carrying a gun,' and so a lot of it is just the way I look. I look like I'm angry and dangerous, and in fact, I'm loveable and kind.
But most good movies have a gun in them.
I've always thought that guns are a cowardly tool in the hands of men and women trying to solve problems with each other. And cowardly in the hands of filmmakers. It's taken so lightly in films.
It's rare in Hollywood to get the chance to work on something that you actually care about. The tragedy of the place is all these talented people trying to get excited about stuff they themselves would only view at gunpoint.
You know, I've never shot a gun in a movie.
I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money.
While actors play with guns for make-believe, the guns themselves are by no means make-believe; they're real. Even when the actor is using blanks, there are all kinds of safety protocols to follow when shooting one at someone. Pulling the trigger is the easy part.
A gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them - jobs, money, pride.
You never see a teaser for a film on television that doesn't have someone running around a corner with a gun. Have you noticed that?... I think Hollywood has as much responsibility for gun violence as the National Rifle Association.