Movie Actors/Directors/Producers Who Made TIME's 100 Most Influential People (2014)

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Amy Adams
by Emily Blunt (Actress)







The Cinematic Chameleon

Amy and I properly got to know each other in Albuquerque, N.M., while we were shooting Sunshine Cleaning. One night I was driving us home from a Mexican restaurant. I had just told her I was a great driver. Then, as we were leaving, I put the car in drive — rather than reverse — and drove us into a tree. It was a tap, not a cataclysmic crash.

But to Amy, stuff like that is heaven. She just burst out laughing. That’s what I love most about Amy — she’s silly and funny and dirty. And she’s incredibly honest. She’s self-admittedly terrible at small talk and hiding her feelings, which I really admire in an industry full of gush.



She’s also spooky-good at her job. There’s a certain mystique about Amy that helps the audience go with her on this chameleon of a career, from Enchanted to The Fighter to American Hustle.

And I don’t think she’s discovered her full bag of tricks even yet.











Matthew McConaughey
by Richard Linklater (Film Director/Screenwriter)






The Most Surprising Actor in Hollywood

Matthew McConaughey had a very rural upbringing, didn’t see a lot of movies or watch much TV, wasn’t a child actor or star of the school play, and actor or artist sure wasn’t a career-day option in the East Texas he grew up in.

What he was doing, however, was observing everyone around him, a character himself among crazy, colorful characters. Matthew loves people—simple as that. His goal is to connect, to translate, to listen, to be heard, to ascend one more step in this work in progress called life.



By the time I met him during casting sessions for Dazed and Confused in 1992, it was clear he had characters in him he wanted to express. Tellingly, he was the only radio-TV-film major in his college fraternity’s history. On his first night of shooting (where the “All right, all right, all right” took flight), the entire production caught a groove and went to a new level.

That’s what Matthew does. He’s the guy on the court who elevates the rest of the team. Look at The Wolf of Wall Street—that chest-thumping thing Leo DiCaprio’s character runs with, that’s a little thing Matthew actually does. There are stars that suck up all the energy in the room—Matthew maximizes the energy and shares it.



Another line that grew out of his character in Dazed was “Just keep livin’.” He was very specific about it not having a g. Life’s a verb, he said, and all these years later, it’s clear he’s in this thing for the long run.











Robert Redford
by Harvey Weinstein (Co-Chairman of The Weinstein Company)






The Godfather of Indie Film

You could argue that the only person who has done more for American independent film than Bob Redford is John Cassavetes, and that’s because Cassavetes practically invented it with great actors shooting on a shoestring budget and dealing with all the subject matters that Hollywood wanted to ignore because of their lack of commerciality.

That was Cassavetes: just go out in the middle of the night and shoot the damn thing.



Redford, on the other hand, created a utopia in the middle of conservative Utah for successful filmmakers to interact with young filmmakers, and thus Sundance — the laboratory and festival — was born.

Take Bob Redford out of the equation and Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson and other top filmmakers might have had a much rockier road.



This year we were reminded of the consummate actor Bob Redford is. In All Is Lost, he gave an Academy-worthy performance that epitomized not only his dramatic dexterity but also who he is as a man: ornery, resourceful and indomitable. He’s the only person in the movie, and if you think that’s easy, you need a psychiatrist.

It is a titanic performance (using a seafaring reference purposefully) in an edge-of-your-seat movie, and it makes me think of his other great roles: The Candidate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men.

He went where very few dared to go and continues to do so.



He has only one fault. Over the past 20 years, we’ve been going out to lunch. Bob always gets away without paying the bill. I saw him a couple of months ago and reminded him of that, and he said, “You pick the place and the expensive wine and I’m in.”

We dined for 31⁄2 hours, drank expensive wine and told some whoppers of stories. As we walked out of Graydon Carter’s Monkey Bar, the woman came for the check. Bob patted his pants and sport jacket and said he didn’t have his wallet. It was as good a performance as I’ve seen, and made me laugh so hard that I put it on my account.



If you’re lucky enough to hang out with Bob Redford, get ready for an opinionated, brilliant, insightful discussion of moviemaking from the point of view of a legendary actor and pioneering director-producer.

Just prepare to pay the check.











Megan Ellison
by Jessica Chastain (Academy Award-nominated Actress)






Hollywood's Powerful Wunderkind

The Italian Renaissance flourished because patrons like the Medici family sponsored artists and valued their craft. Today the film industry has been blessed with a modern version of the Medicis — a single benefactor who has the utmost respect for cinema: Megan Ellison.

I first met Megan on the set of Lawless in 2011 and quickly discovered her love of cinema. Her Annapurna Pictures produces daringly original films driven by visionaries, including Zero Dark Thirty, True Grit, The Master, American Hustle and Her.

They have earned a total of 35 Academy Award nominations, and she is the first female producer to earn two Best Picture nominations in the same year. Oh, and she’s only 28.



Megan is not only changing the direction our industry is going in, she’s also enriching our culture.

Where would we be without Lorenzo the Magnificent supporting Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo? I’m glad that we’ll never have to know.











Steve McQueen
by Lupita Nyong’o (Oscar Winning Actress)






The Passionate Storyteller

From Hunger to Shame to 12 Years a Slave, Steve tackles tough subjects with passion and a very evident love. His storytelling is all about creating genuine emotional exchanges between the actors. He’s always in search of the truthful moment that will give the audience real human access to difficult issues. He’s a visionary in that way.

In 12 Years a Slave, he gave us a very clear and emotional representation of the time and institution of slavery. The complexity of characters lets you see how slavery was a burden not just to the enslaved but to the slavers as well. The emotional toil affected everyone.

I think Steve is a genius at what he does, but he doesn’t impose his genius on you. It really feels collaborative and exploratory to work with him. What he managed to create was a sacred space where everyone respected the story we were telling. He gave us reassurance that this was for something bigger than all of us.











Alfonso Cuarón
by J.J. Abrams (Writer, Director, Producer)






Master of the Universe

There is much to admire in Alfonso Cuarón. His talent, his humor, his “What? I just woke up looking this handsome!” demeanor. We can certainly admire his tenacity, which has allowed him to make some of the most arresting, visually stunning work in recent cinema.

Or, perhaps mostly, we can admire the fact that in addition to bringing authenticity and emotion to pre-existing universes (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Alfonso is making original films, creating new worlds and introducing us to characters not based on a corporation’s fave existing IP (intellectual property).

Like a certain character you may have seen floating alone in space, Alfonso doesn’t have much company in the rarefied air in which he, lucky for us all, lives and creates. Here’s to his staying in orbit.

http://time.com/time100-2014/