Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant in 2018

Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. His films include Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk, Psycho, Finding Forrester among others.

Quotes

• Once you're directing, you're kind of in a certain mode, where you're taking whatever is on the page and forming it into the film that you think it might want to be. So whether it's my writing or not, I still try to work with it in the same way.
  • From an interview by Chai Hong Lim, The Guardian, (January 16, 2009).
• For me it was a lot like using music. I used it when I felt that it was right, when I felt like it was time.
  • In response to the question: "Was there an attempt in Last Days to connect the use of the musique concrete to specific themes in the film?"from the interview “… the Way Someone Would Shoot a Film in an Architectural Magazine”: Gus Van Sant on Last Days by Peter Bowen on Filmaker, (Jul 5, 2018).
• I grew up on the experimental cinema coming out of New York and San Francisco in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
  • Stated in the interview Gus Van Sant remembers Andy Warhol’s transgressive film The Chelsea Girls, Interview magazine,(April 23, 2018).

Quotes about Gus Van Sant

• Elephant, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year, is Van Sant's masterpiece.
  • Simon Hattenstone, British journalist and writer. Stated in "All the world's an art school", The Guardian (January 24, 2004).

• I've stayed in touch with Gus over the years, and there have been a couple of things that were looked at, but never quite worked. But I was always interested in working with him again, because he was so instrumental in the kind of actor I am. I worked with him at a really crucial part of my career. I hadn't worked since I was a kid, and then I worked when I was 19 years old. He really changed the way I thought about acting. So I was really eager to work with him again. The process was incredible. In some ways, it was like being back in '95 or whenever it was.
  • Joaquin Phoenix, American actor, producer, and activist. Stated in the the interview "Joaquin Phoenix Talks About Reteaming with Gus Van Sant for 'Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot", Moviefone (July 20, 2018).

• It was such a privilege to work with Gus — a true luxury for me, as watching ‘My Own Private Idaho’ almost 30 years ago was an eye-opener for me, it made me understand who I am in a delicate way.
  • Alessandro Michele, Italian fashion designer. From the interview "Alessandro Michele, Gus Van Sant Discuss GucciFest", WWD (November 14, 2020)