Friends with author Sarah Vowell and is mentioned numerous times in her book 'Assasination Vacation'.
Bennett Miller is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the films Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011), and Foxcatcher (2014). His films have been nominated for five Academy Awards and have won two.
Miller was born in New York City, the son of American Jewish parents, Marjorie (née Gettleman), a psychoanalyst, and Mark Miller, a writer and educator. His mother was born in New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants, and his father was born in Chicago, to a Jewish family from Ukraine. Miller has a sister, Rebecca, who is also a writer.
Miller was raised in a secular household in Brooklyn Heights, and attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. He later studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he made his student film Short Order (1991).
Miller’s first feature film, Capote (2005), was based on the life of writer Truman Capote and starred Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Hoffman.
Miller’s next film, Moneyball (2011), was based on the true story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The film starred Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Pitt.
Miller’s third film, Foxcatcher (2014), was based on the true story of John du Pont, a wealthy heir who murdered Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz. The film starred Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Miller has also directed music videos and commercials. He is currently working on a biopic about the life of Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers).
Miller is married to actress Ashley Olsen. They have two daughters.
Miller has an estimated net worth of $20 million. He has earned his wealth through his successful career as a film director, producer, and screenwriter.
General Info
Full Name
Bennett Miller
Date Of Birth
December 30, 1966
Profession
Film producer, Film director, Cinematographer
Education
New York University, Mamaroneck High School
Nationality
American
Family
Siblings
Theodore Miller, J.B. Miller
Accomplishments
Awards
Independent Spirit Special Distinction Award, Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Feature Film, Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director, Gotham Independent Film Tribute Award, San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Director, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First...
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Director, Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Direction, Golden Bear, Satellite Award for Best Director, Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film, Bodil Award for Best American Film, Natio...
Movies
Foxcatcher, Moneyball, Capote, The Cruise, The Question
Frequently makes films that are true stories (i.e. Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011) and Foxcatcher (2014))
Quotes
#
Quote
1
[on why his narrative features have all been fact-based] I imagine I'll do non-fact-based films as well, but I'm attracted to stories that are allegorical, but also have a finite, material reality that can be examined. This is one of these stories that I think guards all sorts of truths. If you really stick with it and examine it, it begins to reveal things I can't imagine anybody fabricating. There's something very satisfying about creating cinema within the limitation of true events.
2
Some time ago, the classes, the walls, and the barriers separating the classes began to be dissolved, at least in our minds, meaning that there is freedom in opportunity. With that dissolution, I think, comes an anxiety about your station in life, because wherever you are, there is a station above you, and with it now is the understanding that the only thing keeping you from it is not some law or societal construct -it's your own inadequacy if you fail to get there. There are prizes that we are meant to aspire towards. I do think that's part of the American concept.
3
[on the tone and style of Foxcatcher] The tone comes from the style of filmmaking, which is more concerned with observing a story instead of telling a story. It is a style that seeks to sensitize you to what is happening beneath the surface because so much goes unexpressed. The style tends to calm and smooth the waters so that you can see deeper. It is a turbulent story but the observing of it is ultra-focused. As far as tone in regards to being funny or serious or whatever else, it seemed to be an appropriate and natural manifestation of this extraordinarily awkward and ultimate tragic relationship.
4
Every film, I believe, teaches you how to make that film.
5
My nature is to try and look past apparent truths, to pull back layers and understand the psychological motives behind phenomena. A nonfiction subject challenges you, it keeps you honest.
6
[on Foxcatcher] In some ways it's a small story, but yet it really felt familiar and it had resonance. For me the more micro you look at it, the bigger it becomes. Within it are themes of wealth, power, class, decline and entitlement... There's a natural human tendency to judge things before we understand them. That simplifies things but deprives us of insights that could be taken from looking more carefully, being unflinching, taking a hard look at something we have an aversion to looking at. This film really wants to stare at the ambiguity of what happens. The discomfort of ambiguity is an essential aspect of the story. It pulls back the bow for a long time. It's not meant to crystallize until the end.
7
A film cannot make it into the culture without the support of critics.
8
I think the mind has a way of getting to where it needs to get to. If you are persistent.
9
I want to work with performers who really are ready to lose their minds, you know? People who are established and have talent, but who are ready to break new ground and really be cracked open in a new way.
10
Every relationship probably has, at its inception, a hundred things that you could pick on and divert you from it, but the feeling is there. You figure out a way to make it work.
11
Honestly, my smartest business decision was to never do anything that I didn't love doing.
12
I don't believe in God in the way I often see described by religion.
13
I am attracted to anything that does not feel derivative.
14
I think I am missing a gene that most people have to enable them to feel happiness about success and these kind of things.
15
I think I approach things with an outsider's perspective.
16
For me, personally, the value of a film is not determined by a review, but the health of the film is.
17
It's great making a film and having it embraced and seen. I really enjoy that.
18
People are attracted to entertainment, for sure, or jokes, excitement and romantically heightened stories that might be false, but are still attractive fantasies.
19
My business life is really simple. It's like, get check. Put check in bank. Pay rent. I've never bought a stock in my life. I never got caught up in that trip. And the truth is, I don't obsess about money ever.
20
You make a movie and you'd like it to be appreciated, respected, embraced.
Facts
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Fact
1
All three of Miller's feature films have received Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Best Screenplay (Original for Foxcatcher and Capote, Adapted for Moneyball) and either Supporting Actor or Supporting Actress.
2
Did not direct a feature film until he was 38 years old.