I don't really need a lot of help from a director.
Do you know what I'm working on now? My first feature as a director.
I don't want people saying, 'Should we get a female director?' I want to hear, 'Should we get a great director for this movie?'
I had read too many memoirs that were written after the writer or the director was past his or her prime.
As an actor, I'm always playing solitary characters. But as a director, I'm always making ensemble movies, which focus on lots of people's lives and how they intertwine.
Established actors will challenge you if they don't agree with the way you are taking it, and you have to argue it. But with a younger cast, they are more likely to wonder whether what they are doing is okay instead of trying to second guess the director. That helps push you.
I can't help thinking if she - the director of a government agency - is this ignorant about what funding is available and where the money comes from - how often lower-level bureaucrats must give wrong answers when people are looking for help to start a business.
If everybody had 100% record of hits and flops, there would have been no surprises. There's not one director with 100% success rate.
I act once in awhile if something comes up that seems fun. I like to do it - it's a lot of fun because there's no responsibility. You let other people have the headaches. The director has all of the headaches.
I would consider doing any part as long as the script is good and the film has an interesting director.
I think the most important thing for an actor is reading the script and trying to figure out if you can play that character well. The last thing on my mind is if the director made good movies previously. It's not my job to know if that director's last movie was any good - it's my job to know if I can play the role.
I still make more money as I do as an actor than director, however I don't want to be a commercial director.
When you're working in front of the camera, there are always things that occur to you after the director has said 'Cut.' I could probably, if I sat down and thought about it, come up with instances where I wished I had made this particular choice or that particular choice.
A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, a CEO or a managing director. It's one where everyone is entrepreneurial and proactive.
If you have a screaming angry director, everyone else will be panicked as well.
So I started to learn Russian and I was one of those probably way too eager, annoying young actor kids who was trying to change all my lines to Russian, much to the dismay of the director and Nic Cage.
My job, as an actor, is to give the director options. You can only hope that the takes that you thought were the best were chosen. But, then again, if I don't watch it, I'll never know.
As a director, you're a bit of a dictator. But I feel that you're a better director if you're open to other people's ideas. It means that it's tougher: you have to be in a choosing process; you have to put the ego aside. As long as everybody's aiming in the same direction... I'm open to my main partners in the film crew.
You can't just go in there and open your mouth until the cast and director feel comfortable with you.
It's madness to hand in a script to a director, leave them alone, and for the director not to want the writer there with rehearsals and the shoot.
Usually, I don't want to sit down and listen to the director gas on about his movie. I just can't actually imagine myself sitting down and having that much to say.
I did my first movie, 'The Mambo Kings,' in America without speaking the language. I learned the lines phonetically. I had an interpreter actually just to understand directions from my director.
When you have a good director, it's just wonderful.
For me, the director is the most important thing. He is steering the boat. If you don't trust him, you won't be able to give him your all.
I was very fortunate in having David Fincher, the director come to me. Now I've seen the finished product, I feel that every bit of the nine months we spent on the film was worth it.
I think the grandfather of the set is the director. He needs to have authority, to do what people want. A warm grandfather; he needs to know his job, to be open.
From a writing point of view, you now have teams of screenwriters working with a director. What's lost in the process is the power of that one heart, brain, gut and soul that makes something an original piece of writing.
As a journalist, as a screenwriter and as a director, I'm trying to tell compelling and truthful stories.
You can't always expect to work with a director who guarantees success.
So yeah, a good director will be able to listen and hear everything, but have a confident vision of his own that he can say, 'oh yeah - that's a great point.' And you never know; often you can help far more than you think you can, because there's so much more that he's juggling than an actor.
Every director should take an acting class.
Every time you say yes to a film there's a certain percentage of your yes that has to do with the director, a certain percentage to do with the story, a certain percentage with the character, the location, etc.
As a director, it's my job to provoke, and when people decided 'The Room' be called a phenomenon, or whatever you call it, it's fine with me.
It's easy to get jaded. It's easy to get lazy. It's easy to get too self-centric, like, 'Why me? What about my needs?' It has nothing to do with that. But you see, you are the thing you are selling whether you are a director or an actor in this business. It's very tough. The town doesn't realize that its greatest resource is its people.
Listen, I'm 41 years old. I've got two kids. I've got a career. The last thing I need to be doing is having a beef with A Tribe Called Quest. It's silly and it was unnecessary. It ain't the first time that a director hasn't seen eye to eye with a subject and it ain't going to be the last time.
My musical director, Mark Cherry, is the most wonderful person who ever lived on God's good green Earth. He's my director, he does the arrangements. Really, he does everything - including certain janitorial chores!
