I personally like to talk to people when I'm not doing a scene, still acting as if I'm in Gotham when I'm on set because I don't really like to break character, since I sometimes get distracted. I may get distracted when I'm talking to people and having fun; then I have to check myself.
In Goodfellas they have this one scene where the camera goes down some steps and walks through a kitchen into a restaurant and the critics were all over this as evidence of the genius of Scorsese and Scorsese is a genius.
I remember doing the sex scene in Red Rock West. I had to kiss Nic Cage and then look like I was going down on him. And he couldn't do anything - he just had to lie there.
When the movie's done, you talk about either the score or source music over a particular scene, what might work. You just throw a piece of music over the scene, and we both listen to it.
We were very fortunate to have been on the scene when we were.
I've learned a lot about stage-managing for illustration. Sometimes you have to delete characters from a scene just to keep from overcrowding the image. I've also learned to making big-scale design decisions early.
As artists, we thrive when we can express our comfort and our discomfort. If a certain scene is really challenging for us, if we're in an environment where we feel safe, we're able to do our work.
People like Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Captain Beefheart - all of these artists were what I grew up listening to every day of my life. And there's a very healthy music scene in the west country of England, where I grew up.
If I have enough ego to say I'm a writer, a director, a producer, and an actor, I should have the energy and the knowledge to write a scene for this great actor named Henry Fonda and direct him in it and have it work.
What I do have to get across is the truth of the moment within the given scene. It's my job, as a director and screenwriter, to create the environment in which all those moments will come together eventually.
Barack is at a level where he can't - no matter how much he wants to or how much we want him to - he's not going to come take out our garbage, so to speak. He can't be the garbage man and the president. He can't be the mayor and the alderman. He can't fill all those roles. So I always push for local, local activity on the political scene.
I try to stay away from the L.A. scene as much as possible. I feel it helps me to better prepare for my roles if I am not too involved in that whole thing.
In films you do a scene, you play around with it and unless you're doing a lot of reshooting, which no one has the luxury to do, you deal with the problem for a day and then you move on. On some level, it never allows you to go very deep into what performing is about.
It's just really, really beautiful. Each scene is one long 15 minute take without cutting. My scene is with Robin Wright-Penn so I'm pretty excited about that.
I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.
After a plane or train crash, the National Transportation Safety Board dispatches its experts within two hours. The investigators in their familiar jackets take charge of the scene, secure evidence, follow leads.
Now, what is it which makes a scene interesting? If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window - that is at once interesting.
You jot down ideas, memories, whatever, concerning your real life that somehow parallels the character you're playing, and you incorporate that in your scene work.
On 'Sin Nombre,' Adriano Goldman and I improvised a lot of things on-site. We were working with untrained actors, and you can't really block a scene in a traditional way.
I wish the rock 'n' roll scene to be back in.
I really like having a life outside work. I sometimes wish I did more career stuff and was in that Hollywood scene a bit more. But Toronto's my home.
A James Cagney love scene is one where he lets the other guy live.
Soaps have a schedule where you have to be done in 15 minutes. With an hour show, there's no way to get off schedule. On a movie, it's a lot easier to go back and reshoot scenes. I wasn't used to that at all... taking the time to really make each scene as good as it can be, which you can't do on soaps.
The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
You're in a scene with Laura Linney or Oliver Platt or John Hickey or Alan Alda and these amazing actors and actresses, and you're like, 'Oh my God, I haven't even started; I'm nothing compared to these people!'
Do you remember a scene with Ryan and Ali playing in the snow? Well, that was improvised.
A lot of young directors, they're not confident; they're not open to the emotional level of the scene.
There was a scene in 'Qubool Hai' where Asad shoots his father. After shooting for it, I was drained completely. At times, my character's mood gets very depressing. Post shoot, it takes a good half hour to get out of character, to leave Asad behind.
Webcomics are much bigger than any one scene can circumscribe.
Sometimes, I remember, for action continuity or to get all warmed up for an action scene before giving a close-up or saying a dialogue, I would do push-ups. I didn't know any other way to get my body mechanism going.
When you're around the whole Dead scene, they're there as a tribal thing; they're there as part of a rendezvous and a pow-wow.
I was young and felt like it was opportunity 'cause they were moving units back then on the underground scene.
I was grateful to have two weeks to shoot this one scene in Harry Potter. It's a big, big scene, but they have to deliver. And they have high expectations.
Walking down the red carpet, suddenly I felt very special and different. All the flashlights from cameras and requesting voices from the media, the scene, it was just like what I remembered seeing on TV or a movie when I was a little girl - the scene only when movie stars appeared.
I hate when you see a film and after one scene you know what's going to happen and you can predict the whole story.
When you're in that scene, you really wonder if this is all you're ever going to be. You know how vile and filthy you are inside.
