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“You Don’t NEED the APPROVAL of Anybody Else!” – Guillermo del Toro’s (@RealGDT) Top 10 Rules


making movies is eating a sandwich and
the only thing that gets a little better
is as the years go by you get a little
more bread but the whole way there
Dingles very well-meaning why don’t you
take up the violin so you can reach a
wider audience and because I don’t want
a wider I as I won the audience for the
movie I come from a country where you
didn’t make money because you may move
it you lost money you made movies and I
was friendly and I was really moved
because a I was happy the movie was
being recognized and be I was not going
to jail he’s a Mexican film director
screenwriter producer and novelist he’s
had a lifelong fascination with monsters
which he considered to be creatures of
great power his work can be
characterized as a strong connection
between fairy tales and horror
he’s Guillermo del Toro and here is my
take on his top ten rule to success
rule number one is my personal favorite
I make sure to stick around although to
the end custom special bonus clips also
as he’s talking if you said something
that really resonates with you please
leave in the comments below so quotes
around it other people can be inspired
as well enjoy
[Music]
[Music]
he started in the crib I was a baby and
from the cradle all the way to age 11
more or less I have what is called lucid
dreaming which means that you dream that
you are awake so I literally saw
monsters I was used to monsters I loved
them but you know at the very early age
I made a deal with them to allow me to
go to the bathroom because I was afraid
I ended up paying my crib and you know
we stay friends sorry
you know there are only two things you
can do in art or in narrative and
storytelling you can tell about the good
stuff in life which has always been very
boring to me and you can tell stories
about the dark side of life which has
been much more attractive to me when I
talk to three first-time filmmakers or
first-time filmmakers I always tell them
look making movies is eating a sandwich
and the only thing that gets a little
better is as the years go by you get a
little more bread but there’s always
there but isn’t it that true of life
also I think it is I mean I use another
metaphor for life but for film I tell
you that one fits and is it but in the
end somehow you find the joy well you
and you end up convincing yourself that
it’s peanut butter and it ever is it
ever peanut butter
I want to believe it is but if you look
back in though always that I did that I
tell you without a doubt we we made save
easily is the greatest being an artist
in whatever discipline dance painting
theater whatever you want is the
greatest work on earth I mean it’s truly
disheartening in that in this way or
that way but so is every job
so is every July when I was younger I
worked with my father on real estate for
about five years I was the worst car
salesman in the history of Carl sighs
McCallister’s weren’t you buddy was
Fisher too honest yes people would come
and say what about designing hell you
know Glengarry Glen Rose I would not get
the knife set I would I would be I would
be Shelly Levin I would be out out it
was terrible my father said you do
terrible but I wonder the other vendors
whenever whenever I went out the other
salesmen whenever I went out to a client
they actually laughed behind my back
actually physically were laughing behind
my back
and I was the worst but unrealistic I
was good I was good elusive and my Val
used to say you have to do this to show
that you can have an honest living do a
lot of living and what I did is work on
real estate in the mornings arm I did
masters in the afternoon but I know that
when you have a real job
I painted highways one summer in which
the Kansas I mean a real job as equal
heartbreaking sound like that I’m
politics well I mean this is I think
it’s one of the things that people
really misunderstand it is glorious it
is to be able to do things you’re
passionate about it to be an artist it’s
still a job it is not only still enjoyed
work yeah yeah it is it is but but God
god bless anyone that can do this is
beautiful and you have to truly be
grateful and the only way to remain
objective about how grateful you need to
be is present your present to your past
self when you’re 20 years old and if you
won’t talk to yourself at 20 years old
and said would you like to be doing this
movie with this button what do you think
your response at age 20 would be as of
will be yes you know I think the
financial success is on society
you know to me and when people say for
example I showed Pan’s Labyrinth and
somebody said why don’t you take up the
violin and it was very well-meaning why
don’t you take up the violin so you can
reach a wider audience and say I don’t
want a wider or if I want the audience
for the movie each movie has an audience
that’s it it’s not very good more or
less if you quit it
if you amputate it if you cripple it
that’s all you do you know people dream
of a bigger audience and I go well you
know yeah but is it the movie is in
order to make more people happy the you
know Cinderella
don’t forget the prince at the end I
don’t know and if love is not the same
tale you know it’s as much as I like
these many films of the Renaissance of
animation I can’t every time I see the
Little Mermaid I think but she dies in
the in the book she dies at the end
that’s what made it beautiful but the
prince was ultimately so stupid and I
understand they are reaching a wider
audience
he said the tale that has Christian
Andersen wrote no way it’s a different
movie a different tale so if you’re
asking me why Little Mermaid successful
as a film I say it was but it wasn’t the
tale it’s a great I love those films I
really think the beautiful constructed
book is not the tale so Peregrine
without the violence is not that violent
it is I don’t know the fantasy like
Harry Potter or Narnia or any other
sensitive cell and and you know when
they say oh I would like you to to do
this for me or and I produce a lot of
first-time filmmakers but I don’t
produce all first-time filmmakers that
approach me and I say look if I say no
and you give up I’m sorry to tell you
what is the wrong job for you because
you live with rejection for decades
sometimes as a director and you end up
making the movie you want to make so if
I say no
doesn’t mean I’m right or I’m wrong do
you say okay I’ll show him later
you know I’m gonna make it and that fat
bastard is going to have to say I was so
wrong and shield himself in the head
because he didn’t do it and I think that
that’s the thing to do is like show us
don’t tell us you know do the things and
if you do them one but you do them in
your own terms
that’s how I define success failing in
your own terms
I come from a country where you didn’t
make money because you made movies you
lost money have you made movies and all
of my life when I approached a new
project and I was fifty fifty years old
and I’ve done now I don’t know how many
movies has producer director Lola and I
still have the same emotion when I go
into a project I go how much am I
willing to lose to do that image and
there’s always one or two images in
every project that you would more than
jor-el’s sell your color give everything
you have to to make sure that image
comes to safe okay I’ve heard you talk
about like Pacific remedies to the girl
with the red shoes absolutely like had
to make that movie just to see that it
doesn’t matter what you go through
doesn’t matter they they give you X
amount of time but what you need to
always protect the images that are
crucial
is it but I mean
what’s opponent achieved for you well
that movie changed my life because we
were more than the underdog more than
the Dark Horse we were a movie that
nobody wanted to produce nobody was
supporting except my producers in Mexico
and we suddenly were selected for can
and literally we were all of a sudden
one of the most awarded Louisan can mix
them from history I remember the first
time Kronos won the first award which
was a cash award and before that award
we were in dead for half a million
I want we won the award and literally
like like a beauty contest I was crying
crying in the stage holding this giant
check and I was trembling and I was
really moved because a I was happy the
movie was been recognized and be I was
not going to jail I used to do makeup
effects for myself
they were very bad but I was the only
one doing them so a lot of friends when
I was doing my short film they would see
the effect that they who did that for
you and I say I did it and they started
telling me would you do mine and I
started doing it and I realized it was
an edge with which going to feature film
and what I did is for example I we did a
TV series called automatic’ at which
just again terrible filmmaking but we
were all learning Alfonso Cuaron was
there I was there Emmanuel Lubezki the
big German Navarro my DP always started
in that series and we were doing little
experiments and I would I said to the
producers I’ll do the makeup effects for
free you pay the materials I do them for
free but in exchange I write and direct
episodes and they said that’s a good
deal so it was a way to put your foot on
the door and I and I was already on the
way to the Kronos I started writing
Kronos around 1985 and I knew that in
order to make the device the crown
the lies and the negative effect I
needed to create a company that would
tell the producers there’s someone that
can do those effect so the sooner Heidi
the kronos essentially a year later the
shop was closed because it had served
its purpose what some stuff that
aspiring filmmakers can do just to
separate themselves from the heard from
the noise well I think that be
themselves and you you can be hard to
pay some people may like you some people
may not like you
some people get what you do some others
think you’re crazy but if you are true
to yourself if you only do things that
you really believe in and that are
personal to you then you know you don’t
need the approval of anybody else right
I mean that that’s in my opinion what
distinguishes not only the great horse
and makers that the great filmmakers in
general you know some people can go
through life shooting be movies and
eventually they get discovered you know
by an audience that cut them at the
right time some people go all their
lives
shooting sort of underground little
thing and they can find their audience
and it’s a matter of being true I’m not
trying to be somebody else or have some
different type of budget I mean you’ll
find your audience and your audience
will find you I think that I strive to
is to to to connect deeply with
audiences that like what I do even if
the audience at large does or doesn’t it
makes no difference to me I make weird
movies no matter what size the movie in
and they’re not for everyone and a lot
of people may be puzzled or say why did
he do this way but I only do things that
I hope speak to somebody in the same
fetishistic way that I was spoken to by
people that go too high on their own
supply because I get high on my own
supply I make the movies because I want
them you know and I am whether is robots
and monsters duking it out or it’s a
post-war fable or whatever it is they’re
done because I want to
I want to see them happiness is a very
difficult thing to the finest I think
it’s reading you know and I think that
is I’m the happiest when I’m working I
had you know in in a project of mine and
all that but even then you know I think
it’s a rhythm I think I think you you
get into a rhythm of work and and
personal life that you feel balanced
about but I think happiness is some two
chirpy a term to try to achieve you know
if that sounds like perfection both seem
to me equally unattainable at its purest
you know I think you know you find peace
I think you that’s that’s what I would
look for more than happiness where
access to you by moments of great
players or ladders yes discovering is
happiness whenever you you see something
that you wrote and rewrote for six seven
years come to life it’s just beautiful
and you’re completely content and you
feel fulfilled and it’s magical I mean
it sounds like a cliche but it’s true or
when you see an actor in wardrobe makeup
everything completely common to the set
for the first time it’s pure purely
magical I mean there are many things
that are like that and in in the course
of discovering or when you are with a
Negron something doesn’t work or up with
a camera and something doesn’t work and
you find a solution and it’s better than
none what you wanted to do first those
are moments of great happiness I never
thought of my work or my life as a
career
I never that’s why I have thoughts on a
dime and you know I want the right job
and that’s the only inalienable right of
a human being is to come and I cherish
the screw-ups so you know I’m going to
continue now in the same way I am
so the beginning and that’s the only
promise of quality I can take and equal
you you’re going to get the same from
the same guy with the same earnestness
and I’m never going to worry about
salary or careers like that I can’t I’m
genetically engineered to do my own
thing you know and that’s what if I have
been very malleable I have never given
my version of what happened on me but I
fought and won the war lost a lot of
battles but won the war and it was a
very tough war and was a very frontal
war and I learned the value of identity
in that process and I tell you that the
only thing I’m concerned I don’t respond
to the world do they say we’re going to
pay you ten million to direct an action
a straight action film
and in that waking up every morning I’m
going to shoot a movie that you know
that’s like you know not having a boner
I’m going to affect show every day for
work what do you do then I’m going to
show up in your head
I keep the same in hands labyrinth is a
project del Toro had no problem showing
up for an adult fairy tale with a dark
side I think that the movie comes from a
very very dark very genuine place in my
heart and I think that sincerity always
find an audience no matter how small no
matter how large it sounds rather is
going to be you know you’re going to
make the same money as a little nemo
didn’t know but whatever audience in
paunches is going to touch a really deep
will and find people that fall in love
with it Raven Lee in the world yeah
where the time people that never
understand what the appeal is yes but
it’s a term that comes from a genuine
place and it has the two things that are
absolutely necessary to make so bold and
heart
guys so much for watching I made this
video because David DJ Pacheco asked me
to so there’s a famous entrepreneur that
you are going to profile Thanks
leave in the comments below and I’ll see
what I can do I also love to know which
of the points that you heard today had
the biggest impact on you what are you
going to take from this video that
you’re going to immediately apply to
your life or your business somehow leave
in the comments I’m curious to see what
you guys have to say finally I want to
give a quick shout out to Arman Arman
thank you so much for picking up a copy
of my book your one word and for reading
it while having your soup as well I
appreciate that hope you enjoying the
book and thank you for the support thank
you guys again for watching I believe in
you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon
that our film incomplete an absolute
freedom with unlimited budget is a
impossible and be undesirable I don’t
think you want that I think you want I
think film is most definitely an
exercise between desire and restriction
you know you need to you need to have a
my actor from Kronos very gallupi he
said to me something beautiful because
we were doing a team and he said what do
you want me to do here and I said
whatever you want is written for you and
he said no I can only be completely free
if you give me some confines since then
within that I’ll be free and I
understood that was that was a beautiful
way of putting it I think that that’s
art but certainly filmmaking you you
have you define those sort of golden
goals and posts and then you run around
in there so you have I be able to go
okay Mel it’s too much oh yes all the
time all the time because because I
think that your ambition should always
be more than your budget it doesn’t
matter what your budget is I remember
talking to Alfonso Cuaron while he was
prepping Harry Potter and he was saying
we’re trying to contain it on and he
gave me the number what are a hundred
and play or 200 and I went before and if
you you’re trying to contain in a movie
like that you’re still trying to contain
the myth the myth of people that see a
big movie and say oh if they give me the
money I could do that it’s me it’s
entirely amazing it comes with some
absolute lack of knowledge of how these
things operate because it’s a military
operation and the larger becomes still
the budget is a monster and a wall and
you’re running a train against it and
you need to know where to stop watch as
many movies of as many years as you can
when I was coming up to the ranch there
was a thing called a cinema Club in the
seventies where you threaded 16
millimeter film and you projected it
and I became familiar with people that
are important to me like max of holes
like Laurel and Hardy The Three Stooges
you became familiar with Renoir you
became familiar with everything from the
comedy to drama as you can see preston
sturges don’t just limit yourself to
what is out there or the latest 10 top
10 on the box-office the main doesn’t
mean to imbibe live or a few mystery
because you’re part of that narrative
Eden even if it’s not film anymore
you’re part of that narrative tradition
and the second thing I feel very
important do not get rapped in the
industry side of this that’s what I find
really heartbreaking that people are now
a lot of times you’re discussing film
with people that love him and it’s like
you’re listening to an agent from an
agency or a head of a studio they know
the grocer’s they know who is doing this
there is not absolutely not important
the important thing is that tradition
you are going to belong to and do not
get caught on the other side stay true
to the other side that need you and
needs to exist urgently
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