Damn Glad to Meet You
Author: Tim Matheson
Release: November 12, 2024
Tagline: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Biography, Entertainment, Television, Movies, Acting
ISBN-10: 0306832933
ISBN-13: 978-0306832932
Declassified by Agent Palmer: I’m Damn Glad Tim Matheson Wrote His Autobiography
Quotes and Lines
Entertainment is clearly an interesting–and small–world.
Pro sports and pro entertainment are full-contact sports. You’re out in front of a crowd all the time and you gotta get a hit when you need to get a hit.
Would The Godfather have been the same if James Caan had played Michael? Would Friends have worked with someone else playing Ross. Would Moonlighting have worked without Bruce Willis? Would Star Wars have worked with Christopher Walken as Han Solo? And . . . perhaps the Indiana Jones franchise wouldn’t have worked with Tim Matheson. This is the alchemy of Hollywood. Respect it–it’s magic.
Movies and TV shows often become line items on spreadsheets, and in that world, there is little room for artistic understanding, compassion, or support. The studios used to be run by people who were once filmmakers themselves or who appreciated and supported what filmmakers do. They believed in the magic of telling stories and telling them as well as they could. On a spreadsheet, the contribution of a great story makes little sense. Gone are people like Robert Evans, Walt Disney, Sherry Lansing, Alan Ladd, and the greats like David O. Selznick, Louis B. Meyer, and the Warner brothers–all of whom built Hollywood.
It’s hard to do while you’re in the middle of things, but my advice to you is this: Appreciate each opportunity to love what you’re doing. The success of things is what you make it–whether it’s a hit or not is out of your control.