Steven Soderbergh Quits Directing Movies! 'It's Stopped Being Fun!' A Look Back At His Best Films As He Shifts To TV!
Steven Soderbergh is the master of the ensemble film. He is pretty much an actors' director and practically all of Hollywood's A-listers have worked with him. Thus, it was quite a surprise to find out that he's walking away from all of the fame.
A very revealing interview with Esquire shows the director's personality and passion towards his work. He left some projects hanging, like the 'Magic Mike' sequel with Channing Tatum. It didn't seem like he could be convinced to change his mind.
Why would he walk away when he's still at the top of his game?
"The reason is, and I understand it... The fact that it became a story at all is because of Matt Damon. He remembered verbatim a drunk conversation we had in Chicago and repeated it to USA Today. I'd talked about it before and nobody gave a shit. It wasn't until Matt said that I had a plan to get out. The bottom line when people talk about all the reasons, you know the biggest reason? It stopped being fun. It just stopped being fun. It really wasn't. That's a big deal to me. It may sound like 'Why do you have to have fun to go to work?' I don't know. I like to be in a good mood. The ratio of bulls**t to the fun part of doing the work was really starting to get out of whack."
If Soderbergh liked hanging out with the best and brightest of Hollywood, then he definitely had lots of fun. Some of his most famous films:
"Erin Brockovich" earned an Academy Award nomination For Best Picture and Best Director and Julia Roberts' only Oscar for Best Actress. Roberts eventually became one of his muses (there's too many!)
The Ocean's Trilogy (Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen) - started by being a stylish heist film but sadly deteriorated to an exploitative outing by the third film. The ensemble cast included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle among others.
"Contagion" tackled the viral epidemics that was so timely it scared the wits out of the audience. Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow are the stars.
"The Girlfriend Experience" with Sasha Grey, which is set to become a future TV project!
"Haywire" with Channing Tatum, Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Michael Douglas.
"Side Effects" with Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum, Matt Damon and Jude Law.
There's definitely more Soderbergh films that are worth watching, and it's sad to see him leave the genre.