- Born
- Birth nameAdam H. Spiegel
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the direction of Mike D and Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch before the sad demise of Grand Royal Records. Jonze was also responsible for directing the famous Beastie Boys: Sabotage (1994) short film as well as numerous other music videos for various artists.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Robb Hand
- SpouseSofia Coppola(June 26, 1999 - December 9, 2003) (divorced)
- ParentsSandy Granzow
- RelativesSam Spiegel(Sibling)Julia Spiegel(Sibling)
- [Off-beat] His films/music videos are off-beat in their visual storytelling, particularly their mix of live-action, animation, and puppetry.
- Seamless integration of special effects into live-action photography (Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation. (2002), Where the Wild Things Are (2009)).
- Subtle handheld camera operation
- Frequently uses music from Karen O and the Arcade Fire
- Frequently has a male character unexpectedly break into dance: John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich (1999), Christopher Walken in "Weapon of Choice", Theodore in Her (2013)
- Told Nicolas Cage to ignore all of his acting instincts, for his role in Adaptation. (2002). Cage later received a Oscar Nomination for his acting in that movie.
- Was set to direct The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) back in 2001, with a release in late 2002 but backed out to work on Adaptation. (2002).
- One of the most renowned directors for music videos, he has received numerous awards and recognition from MTV for his outstanding work in the medium.
- He is co-owner of the Girl skateboard company.
- Jonze was an avid BMX freestyle rider in his youth.
- As a feature film director you got to be a guarding dog of the whole production. You got to be able to hold 100 script pages in the head at the same time. If you miss a detail it's wasted. I don't know how the music video generation can affect the movie business, but I'm curious what feature films the English Chris Cunningham and the Swedish guy Jonas Åkerlund are going to make.
- [on the origins of Her (2013) from his long-ago encounter with an artificial-intelligence computer program] For the first 30 seconds, I had that buzz, like, It's responding to me! Then it quickly fell apart and you realize, Here are the tricks, here's how this works. But what if I could sustain that forever? What would that be like? I wanted to take that idea as far as I could possibly imagine and feel.
- [on Joaquin Phoenix's first reading for/ acting in Her (2013)] I loved him...[He was] all instinct [and] when something felt weird, when Joaquin was uncomfortable with something, I knew it meant there was some place I had cheated or hadn't thought through or hadn't gone deep enough. His flinch is always worth listening to...I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction. I think, 'God, I can't believe Joaquin just understood what I meant when I barely said anything'.
- There was definitely a point in my thirties when I thought, 'Oh, wow, I'm not the youngest person on the set anymore. But I like it. Working with younger artists is totally exciting...[And Arcade Fire:] Most of them are ten years younger than me and they just feel like peers. Their process is very democratic. Anyone in the group can come up with an idea and play over someone else.
- [on Amy Adams] The thing I realized with Amy is, she can make any dialogue you write sound unwritten. She just has a way of internalizing it. She's such a thinker and you can see her thinking her way through all of that until it's all coming from within her.
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