I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.
It does get strange when you realize people will hang around for hours to get a glimpse of you doing scenes outside.
What I consider a good part for a woman and what some other Hollywood people think are good women's parts are very different. I don't want to play the supportive girlfriend who has nine scenes and just loves that man, maybe cheats on him in one scene but will always be there, and I mean - give me a break.
Exaggeration can lend action scenes more force, but I like to stick to more realistic figures: They help keep the cool in the action scenes, although they may be not as forceful as the exaggerated ones.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
The fact that I have done films down South didn't boost or hamper my chances here. In fact, I was still shooting for both my Telugu films when I met Ashu sir for 'Mohenjo Daro.' During the audition, he gave me five scenes with lengthy dialogues. Once I cleared them, he gave me a song to dance to. So, my Bollywood entry was no cakewalk.
In 'There's Something About Mary' and 'Dumb & Dumber,' I ended up improvising quite a bit of my scenes, and later I didn't even remember what I'd said because I just winged it. When I went and saw the movie, I was as stunned as everyone else was.
I understand, certain scenes have to have a lot of takes. As an actor, I think it's quite nice to have a handful of takes, because you don't want to do it once or twice; I think once or twice sometimes is quite terrifying because you don't really feel like you've given them what you want.
The real, raw, driven-to-tears type scenes have always scared me since I was very young working as an actor. And to this very day, I get tremendously neurotic making sure nothing is forced or fake.
Improvisation has to do with exploring something like two brothers in a room together. You find out things about situations by discovering the things that they aren't saying. It's a way to explore scenes. Sometimes it's more useful than others, but it's always there to see if there's anything that you might improve.
With modelling, a lot happens behind the scenes; all the fittings and hair and makeup. Then the runway takes two minutes - you just walk out and come back in!
I stay very much undercover and behind the scenes - most places I go, people don't know how important I am. But I will admit that my favorite piece of clothing to wear out is an old T-shirt from a Boston tour that does have a Boston logo. But that doesn't change anything.
There are writers' rooms that will write episodes all together, who will break into little groups and write certain scenes. Everyone's process can be a little bit malleable. Everyone tries to get into a groove or find what works for their room.
I don't know which other actor has done as many hot scenes as I have. I pretty much have the monopoly in the bed scene market in Bollywood.
For me, playing music while I write is important. Several of the romantic scenes in 'Paris' were written with Debussy's 'String Quartet,' his 'L'Apres-midi d'une Faune,' or Canteloube's 'Songs of the Auvergne' playing in the background.
I had worked for a lot of directors whose work I didn't respect, and as I was editing material, I was thinking about how I would have shot the scenes and what I would have done to make the scenes better. After several years of that, I got to the point that I was pretty confident I could sit in the director's chair.
Sometimes you take a job for the money, sometimes you take it for the location, sometimes you take it for the script; there are just a number of reasons, and ultimately what you see is the whole landscape of it. But I can tell you from behind the scenes - that's what it is, as an actor.
I'd say that 'In the Heart of the Sea' is the most challenging movie I've made. It was tough to figure out how to lead this large cast into some very sensitive, intense, emotional scenes.
'Lassie' was amazing. I didn't have any scenes with humans. There's a couple little bits, here or there, but mainly just me and my horse and a couple of dogs in the Isle of Man.
I found out I really love brutal fight scenes.
Kissing scenes are never romantic or sexy. They're actually super technical, like, 'Move your head; you're blocking her light,' or, 'Stop looking like an idiot when you kiss her.'
I'm a little greedy for action scenes. I'm a martial artist, and any time I get to show off some of that art is great.
I don't get to do a lot of fight scenes on 'Sanctuary,' but I'm a trained fighter; I've been doing martial arts for years and, you know, I'm very active physically; I used to be a circus performer.
In writing 'William Shakespeare's Star Wars,' I had the freedom to go beyond the original script and add asides, soliloquys and even new scenes. The main characters all get a soliloquy or two - or in Luke's case, several.
Some scenes comes together really quickly, and some scenes are disasters that take forever. But it sort of works itself out over time.
I don't know specifically what scenes I'd like to see violence in - I crave violence when I'm watching a John Hughes movie.
I love scenes with minimal dialogue.
'Twin Peaks' was incredibly slow, methodic, taking shots that were uncomfortably long, with a lot of scenes where there was barely any dialogue. 'Riverdale' has a much faster pace.
When you're working on a novel, you never think about how much it would cost to shoot one of your scenes. But that's a huge consideration in film and TV.
Action scenes get me so excited, and my adrenaline starts pumping.
I always felt that, when I saw Denzel or Viola do scenes in their past films or past projects, that if it's a heavy scene, and it's requiring a lot of emotional weight, that we would have nothing but silence and incense burning in between takes just to keep things quiet.
I challenge the homes of Israel to display on their walls great quotations and scenes from the Book of Mormon.
Actors don't request what scenes to be written in. That's just not how it works.
I think the perception of me can be, you know, confused. But that's only because people only see that side of me when I'm at work, in front of the camera. So they don't see Miranda at home; they don't see behind the scenes. They see the glamour of it all but they don't see Miranda standing barefoot in a dirty old house.
I think I went more toward writing because that's my talent. I don't think I was a great performer... And I like being behind the scenes a little bit.
I'd be lying if I said I never think about my female fans in certain shots and certain scenes. Like, when I'm topless, I might think: 'This one is for the ladies.'
