I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and does a couple of movies.
I'm a director's actor; I'm a storyteller's actor.
As a director, just to be able to jump in to do something that's different, and to explore comedy and be challenged by that, is great. Some directors never get that opportunity.
From the director's point of view, it's infinitely easier to do violence than to do a good dramatic scene.
I did 'Basic Instinct 2' because I had a baby about to be born, and the director said we could shoot before the due date.
As a director, you never think about how an audience would respond. You can think about that, but you will never change what you're going to do.
The director had come to Madrid to court me.
For me, a director is a director immaterial of the gender. At the end of the day, the audience is only interested in watching a good film.
I have no idea what makes a director believe in me that I can sell these kind of roles.
I was offered and accepted a part in 'A Few Best Men,' and then the Australian actor's union argued that there were too many British actors. And the director decided to lose me.
To work with a director that has emotional commitment and passion toward the characters, and the piece, and the experiences, it only enriches your work.
To win Best Director at Sundance was beyond anything I could have imagined for myself. It's still an incredible feeling to know I won. But as happy as I am about winning, I also know many other women of color have directed amazing films over the years that were equally deserving and didn't win.
It all has to do with the director, the captain of the ship. He sets the pace, the mood. If the director is quiet, the set is quiet. If the director is loud, then everybody has to be louder to be heard.
I like a director who is very observant and is watching what I'm doing and noticing what I'm doing but is giving me time to figure it out. They don't jump right in and give you a note before you've had time to really search on your own with how to do a scene. I like a director that encourages me to be playful.
I hate to sound like Julie the cruise director but it's people that I think about all the time.
If a film is very clever and well-written, that's what gives you freedom as a director.
There are so many elements that make a good film. You need a great director who's driving it.
But I would like to think that it's the actor that makes the difference in these cases. Not the director, not the guy that wrote the book, not the guy that adapted it for the screen, but the actor.
The first thing is that we're being attacked by both the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild. Both of these groups are trying to diminish the importance and strength of the director. They're trying to do it through both frontal and side attacks.
A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
When I'm a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It's somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.
I was creating characters early. People didn't beat me up. I scared them. I hated authority. I could also get people to do things; I was quite the early director. I could make people laugh enough to get their defences down - and then brainwash them.
It is important to be financially savvy when you turn producer. As a director, you just need to have a good script in hand.
There is an isolated experience to being a director. It's very communal because there's a crew, but it's only you. You're the one on the hook.
The problem with most Hollywood movies is they don't give the director enough control.
I want to work with a director who becomes my brother, my father, for two months. You give yourself over to that person.
I'm not aware that I was consciously influenced by any director, though these things often happen unnoticed, submerged in the unconscious.
No, United Artists was a very extraordinary organization, because once they had agreed on the director, they believed in letting him have his way. They trusted me, and that doesn't often happen.
The worst is when I talk myself into something. Sometimes you take things because you want to work with a certain actor, or you want to work with a director, even if the script or the part's not that great.
I think one third of my work is with first-time directors because I think I should, you know? Really, the difference between a first-time director and a second- or third-time director - I mean there's no director who makes enough movies anyway - but if they're talented, they have it. And there is no movie that is perfect.
I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.
'Women on Board' provides a roadmap for high-performing women leaders to join high-performing boards. It is a must-read for every sitting board director, man or woman, and for everyone who aspires to a corporate board seat.
A film's success or failure is strictly on the director's shoulders.
In 1977, I wrote a series of poems about a character, Black Bart, a former cattle rustler-turned-alchemist. A good friend, Claude Purdy, who is a stage director, suggested I turn the poems into a play.
I'm not a betting woman, but I have $50 on Secretariat with an old director friend of mine.
In live-action, writing, production, and editing happen in discrete stages. In animation, they overlap - happening simultaneously. This allows a real dialogue to occur between the writer, the director, the actors, and the editor, and it makes the writing process a lot more collaborative and a lot less lonely.
