Sarita Choudhury Quotes

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

If I'm intimidated, I shouldn't be directing a movie. I gotta treat 'em as characters, not as stars. It's hard to not treat Marlon Brando as a legend, a star, it's difficult not to treat Robert De Niro as a star, but that had to go away very fast after I knew them, because I had to work with them. I'm the director, I'm the boss. They're looking to me for guidance.

I'd never done nudity in a movie; I've never sort of condoned it for myself, but David Lynch wanted it, and I was completely comfortable with it because that love story was so protected. There's never a moment where you feel anything is exploited.

Film is a collaborative process, absolutely, but I am a control freak.

Every actor wants to direct.

I would always rather do a mediocre script with a great filmmaker than a great script with a mediocre filmmaker.

You know, in the film making business no one ever gives you anything.

I realized the exciting place was behind the camera with the producer, director and so on.

With Kubrick and most film directors, they are in complete control, but one can influence them.

I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known. Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best.

My so-called 'reservations' and personal comfort zones can't define my work. That's not being professional. I feel that even if an actor is cast for the lead role or for any other part in the film, it is his job to do the film and not create an issue.

I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation.

The producers who wanted me to do it liked me and trusted me, and more than one scene was only one take, because I'd plan ahead what I thought would be appropriate for that scene-so one take was enough.

I know that it's axiomatic in the film industry that you're not supposed to let the novelist develop their own story. Well, first of all, that's kind of up to the novelist - because they don't have to sell it. But also, I don't believe it. It's about trust.

After making 'Secretary,' it was a real shock to me to learn that some directors just aren't interested in what actors have to say. They just don't want to collaborate.

Directors are our teachers, and I'm always craving to work with a great director. They're pretty much the first thing that interests me about a project. Let's put it this way: It'll take me a lot longer to read a script if there's no director attached.

When you start with Super 8, you are everything. You're the DP, the sound man, the effects guy. And what I started understanding, by working for other people, is that the best type of director is someone who rose through the ranks.

More than anything else, I love to act and leave the rest to my director.

I'd like to have coffee with Farhan Akhtar. He's an all-rounder in the film industry, and I have heard many good things about how he goes about planning all his productions.

I do a film only when I feel I will be comfortable with the set-up and other members of the team.

I am not used to doing naked shoots but when you trust the photographer and the crew, you know it won't be vulgar.

When you're doing something like body paint or a nude shoot, you're making yourself very vulnerable, and you're really trusting people to really take care of you and make sure everything is very professional.

When you are the avatar for the writer/director, a lot of times, I just trusted him. If he had a choice, even if it wasn't necessarily what was my first impulse, I was like, "Billy Ray has been living with this for two years before I even came on board, so I'm going with him."

I don't wear anything in bed. But I'm not ready for a nude scene quite yet.

I don't like to shoot too many movies since I like to do them well.