Hoping to only take on parts that they are very passionate about, these actors and actresses say they’re increasingly picky about what work they do now. Some say things have changed as their careers have moved on and they want to use their time wisely now, so won’t do any job that they’re not completely in love with. Hoping to keep their standard of work up or simply not caring about the high price they’re offered for roles they aren’t interested in, these stars are happy to turn down parts regularly if they’re not in love with the film or the people involved. At a point where they don’t have to be driven by money, they can afford to be as picky as they please.
Brad Pitt
Brad doesn’t want to waste time on projects he’s not passionate about: “Why would I want to spend half a year of my life working with people I didn’t respect, making something that I didn’t feel good about? I’m not saying I’m going to go off and only make small, no-budget films. I think there’s room for big and small films, and you can make intelligent, inspiring bigger-budget movies just as easily as you can make soulless, crass independent ones. As I said, it’s all about the people you’re working with, and the material you’ve got. The rest of it is just Hollywood bull.”
Carey Mulligan
Carey was told by her agent to only take roles she loves: “My agent said to me a couple of years ago, ‘You should only take the jobs that you can’t bear the idea of anyone else taking,’ and this year there was just nothing that I was completely in love with. If I read and think, ‘Well I wouldn’t be devastated to see this in the cinema with somebody else doing it,’ then I wouldn’t do it. And in that year there was nothing I felt significantly different from stuff I’d already done. Then I found something two months ago and started working on that.”
Jessica Alba
Since becoming a mother, Jessica won’t waste her time away from her kids for a project that she doesn’t love: “The time I’m not spending with my kid has to be worth it, so when I sat down with my agents after I was ready to go back to work, I told them, ‘It’s all about the directors.'”
Michael Caine
Michael only takes work with people he wants to team up with: “I don’t like to work anymore unless I find something I absolutely love to do. I don’t like to wake up in the morning and go to work, or learn pages of dialogue. I only want to do it if it’s a good movie and I want to work with the people involved.”
Richard Gere
Richard won’t even read a script unless he knows it could potentially be amazing: ”They don’t send me stuff now unless the script is good because I don’t want them to waste my time. There’s not that much space left in my brain so I don’t want to put any more in there if it’s not of value.”
