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Greg Mottola Biography

Gregory J. "Greg" Mottola (born July 11, 1964) is an American film director, screenwriter, and television director. Mottola wrote and directed the 1996 independent film The Daytrippers, then concentrated for several years on directing in television for series such as Undeclared and Arrested Development. More recently, he has directed the feature films Superbad, Adventureland, and Paul.

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Greg Mottola Quotes

I'm really glad to have made a movie that way on Superbad, because I learned a lot about what can be done and what the limitations are.

Done, Glad, Limitation, Limitations

Even the mistakes and the pain that you've caused and enacted upon you. That is definitely what I'm trying to capture

Pain, Mistake, Trying, Definitely, Enacted

The first person I met in the business was David Heyman, who was a producer on Daytrippers and who went on to produce the highly-unsuccessful Harry Potter series.

David, Firsts, Harry, Harry Potter Series, Potters, Producer

Brian Eno records and music got me through. It made me feel like there were other people out there who had the same questions and fears and unhappiness. Particularly those kinds of artists who were writing songs about exactly those things.

Artist, Music, Song, Things, Writing

Jon Hamm was the first I thought of for the other role in [Keeping Up with the Joneses], I recently worked with him on Clear History, an HBO improv movie that we had done together.

Hbo, Movie, Recently, Roles, Together

Brian Eno records and music became a huge obsession of mine in college, in a way that a pop song can provide solace. I don't know if it's shallow or silly, but it meant so much to me.

Song, Silly, College, Eno, Pop

I guess bittersweet is probably my favorite tone, as a lover of Woody Allen and Federico Fellini and the French New Wave. You know, old Hollywood, sad movies. I guess it's my picture of suburban life, a lot of it being very, very lonely. I wanted to have that infused into the feeling of it.

Feelings, Hollywood, Lonely, Lovers, Movies, Sad

I feel like I came from a generation where. . . We didn't have Vietnam. We didn't have World War II. Nothing cultural was thrust upon us to make men out of us, so you're kind of free to not grow up that way if you don't want to.

Growing Up, War, Men, World, Came, Like

I lived on Thompson Street in SoHo for 13 years and I watched it go from a little Italian neighborhood to the Mall Of America. Then the obvious fact that it's pre-Internet, pre-cell phone. Everyone I think thinks their youth is a more innocent time. I just don't know.

Everyone, Fact, Italian, Obvious, Thinking, Youth

We didn't want to make it a parody of Don Draper[in Keeping Up With the Joneses] but we did arrive on this idea that there's a side of Jon Hamm that opens up that would like him to stop living as a professional liar.

Ideas, Liar, Liars, Professional, Side, Want

I was in college - Carnegie Mellon, which is one of the reasons Pittsburgh was appealing to me - and I personally feel that whole world of what we used to call "college radio" is a big part of what kept me sane through a period where I stopped dating, I felt like a freak, I felt like no girl would like me. You know, a very adolescent response to losing my hair. I turned to obsessing about The Replacements and The Smiths and R. E. M. and getting further into The Velvet Underground. People who, in my sheltered suburban life, I knew of, but didn't know fully.

Appealing, College, Girl, Like, People, Pittsburgh

I don't see that many movies where people are depicting middle-class suburban life in a more textured way. My feelings about the suburbs are not so wonderful, so my movies tend to be a little melancholy.

Feelings, People, See, Tend, Wonderful

I feel this way about a lot of movies, that the characters are idealized versions of people. For better or worse, I am as fascinated with human flaws as anything.

Character, Fascinated, Flaws, People, Way

I have a little bit of a pet peeve about how the middle class is depicted in movies. I feel like they tend to be either depicted in a very sentimental way, where everybody has a heart of gold except for the villains you're supposed to hiss at, or there's a sort of indie-style version. . . When it's done well, it's brilliant, it's Blue Velvet. But when it's done poorly, it feels like shooting fish in a barrel, just saying, "Ooh, scary suburbs. "

Except, Heart, Middle, Pet, Scary, Sentimental

I feel like I'm long overdue for a "one for me" movie, so I've got two low-budget indy personal things I'm working on.

Like, Long, Lows, Movie, Overdue, Two

One of the dangers of making a movie about young people is it's potentially trite.

Danger, Dangers, People, Potentially, Young

I think Stanley Tucci was having an affair with his mother. He had this odd quality that I haven't seen him ever get to do again in a movie that just made me think he's got some chops. He's got a strangeness to him, but he's also clearly been stuck in this role because of his looks and his type. He's been really pigeonholed, I felt.

Mother, Thinking, Quality, Tucci, Pigeonholed

It actually took me 20 years to want to write about my youth. I was definitely always a little intimidated about writing about that part of my life.

Actually, Intimidated, Life, Writing, Years, Youth

I'm a huge fan of Zach's [Galifianakis] and I auditioned Zach a million years ago on a movie called Duplex which I was fired from. But Zach came in - It was like 2000, maybe - as a buddy stand-up that people were starting to notice and there was something about him I loved. He wasn't quite right for the part in [Keeping Up with the Joneses] and I got fired anyway, so who cares? But I always wanted to work with Zach.

Auditioned, Came, Movie, People, Who Cares, Years

I don't really talk about this because it seems indulgent, but I lost my hair, I'm bald, I had alopecia in my teens. That was back in the late '80s, well before people shaved their heads. So it's probably one of the reasons why I have been obsessed with that age, because it's locked in time where I feel like I had this personal loss that so affected my vanity, and I don't really feel like I handled it well. I'm so much older now, so it's not a big deal, but when I think back at it, I can conjure up how I felt then.

Locked, Loss, People, Reasons, Thinking, Time

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