Gina Prince-Bythewood Quotes

I love movies. And I dig a great love story: the kind that wrecks me, then builds me back up and leaves me inspired. I write what I want to see.

If I get a note on my script or my films, what I say to a studio executive is that, ‘You know, this is the film of my legacy, and I never want to be sitting in a theater looking up on the screen and seeing something that I don’t believe in.’ I will never do that.

I just remember when I came out of film school – and I loved film school – that the industry was such a mystery. How to break in, and once you are in, how to make a film; that is such a large undertaking. There are thousands of pitfalls.

I grew up with white parents, and until after college, it was a lot of confusion, especially because I grew up in an all-white area. So I never looked around and saw anyone who looked like me.

Films really can change a conversation and change someone‘s thinking and perception, especially with people of color at the center. It rarely happens. I think it’s important for both the community but also the world to see people of color in all genres, especially love stories.

Oh my God, I love UCLA so much. Their film school is great because it’s unstructured, so there’s a freedom to fail in there and just tell your story, and everybody makes a film. It’s so important to have that freedom in film school because that’s what you’re there for: to learn and make a film.

I remember sitting in the theater watching ‘Bridesmaids,’ and I’m doubled over laughing, and then I’m crying in the same movie. It’s the overwhelming feeling, as I’m looking up and seeing these women, and I’m realizing how rare it is to see that.

I hate to fly. I’m deathly afraid of it.

With ‘Love And Basketball,’ every studio turned it down.

I don’t want people to go to a film of mine because they feel guilty, like, ‘I have to support it because there’s black folks in there.’ I want them to go because it’s a good movie.

‘Beyond the Lights‘ was my fourth film. I gained a lot of knowledge, and I’m excited to share that with young filmmakers because I know how lost I was coming out of film school with that question of ‘What’s next?’

The thing is I write to music, so every script I have has its own playlist. Music just opens me up to the emotions that I’m writing. It’s just a pretty cool thing.

Improv is a very big thing for me. The thing with actors is I do not understand at all how they do what they do. I’m fascinated by it, and I have such a respect for it.

Everything I’ve written has been personal and touched on things that I needed to deal with in my personal life. So I just feel that writing is great therapy, and the best writing comes from truth, and so I mine my life constantly for that.

There are so many romantic comedies made, but very few dramas or love stories. And with a love story, you have to take time to develop three-dimensional characters.

There are a lot of aspects of filmmaking that I love, but one of my favorites is in post, finding the right song for the right moment.

Twitter and social media have so changed the game for filmmakers, but especially for artists. It shrinks the world and gives chance to feel like they know you. But it’s a blessing and a curse. It can help build you up, but there’s also such anonymity.

There is a perception within our community and the world that black people don’t love each other. That we don’t fight for each other. That perception is so dangerous. We need positive images to counter the negative portrayals we see every day. And positive doesn’t mean perfect. Perfect is boring.

I was adopted by two amazing people: a Salvadoran mother and a white father who were incredibly supportive of me and my work. I am eternally grateful for them.

As an audience member, if I go to a film, and I am watching two actors, and they’re kissing, and it looks like they don’t even want to be kissing, it just takes me out of the film.

I love writing and directing because it’s great therapy. Every project I’ve done, there’s been a personal connection.

Talent has no gender. People are hiring young male directors right out of film school, off of a student film or off of a film at Sundance for millions of dollars. You can do the same with a female. It’s not a risk about the work if you respect the film that they made.

There’s a great deal of women in film school. I was not the only woman in my class at UCLA. When I went through the Sundance program, it was half women and half men.

Movies have power. Power to impact society and the choices we make. I want to entertain, but I also want to say something to the world.

I write to music, and Nina Simone is always on my playlist to write to. I mean, she‘s inspiring. She’s truthful and real and raw.