Ken Loach Quotes

For me, the greatest kind of success that I've had on a particular project or in exploring a role does come through collaboration. I wouldn't want to do a movie where everything I do the director just says, "Good job" and I'm under directed.

A director is what a director wants to be. If you want to force something, you can fight to the death and maybe get fired, but it's your job to help push things along.

(As) a director who is a writer, I have respect for writers, so I'm less likely to step on an idea or a line.

It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.

Casting, to me, is always the same. It's a very important part of a director's job. I pick people that I sense I'd like to be in a room with and will enjoy the rehearsal process with because that's the best part.

The dream, I think, with any project is it starts with an idea, and then somebody writes it, and the writer hopes that a director comes on and makes this piece of material visual, and both the director and writer hope that they can have actors come in and bring something to it that neither one of them expected, elevating it along the way.

It's good to work with a writer-director.

I rely on my directors, a lot. I love being directed.

It's always a good collaboration between the actor and the writer and the director to try stuff out, during the process.

Fifty-percent of the director's job honestly is casting the movie well.

I think a good director casts a film so that the actors bring a lot to the table.

If you have a vision or if you believe the director has a vision, then at least you've got something to talk about, something to try and head to and I think that's mandatory for every director to have to do a good job.

My job apart from anything else is to build an ensemble composed of actors who all come from a secure place so that they can all work together to make the film.

To me, one of the main things that a director does is create the tone of his movie.

Some directors hand over portions of their movie to their head of department to the point where it's like, "I'm not going to talk to you about the costumes, but I'm going to let you talk to the expert." Rather than, "You want to talk stitching, let's talk stitching. You want to talk grade of leather? Let's."

Now, before you make a movie, you have to have a script, and before you have a script, you have to have a story; though some avant-garde directors have tried to dispense with the latter item, you'll find their work only at art theaters.

Normally my process is to sit in a room and read a script and talk about it and ask questions and just create a dialogue. That goes all the way through shooting. All kinds of thoughts and ideas can find their way in there. As long as you're all on - We're just all trying to tell the story so my job as a director is just to find out what this film wants to be based on, it's just words on a page at some point but then it just needs to go to some level of believable storytelling. I'm discovering the film as I make it, to some degree.

I know it sounds earnest, but I do really feel in my bones that acting is just a small part of the equation when you are making a movie. The director really is in charge. Actors are as important or unimportant as the rest of the people around them.

If a director can find the exact combination between the written word as a guideline and improvisational input from his actors, I think that's where you'll find the most successful work being done.

I generally don't involve myself in giving the actors some tips on acting. At the same time, I don't do that with the director.

I've worked with a lot of great directors and often times they solicit your ideas.

I think working with actors is a little bit how a chef would work with a potato or a piece of meat. You have to kind of have a look at the potato or the piece of meat and see what kind of possibilities are in the ingredient. I know I'm using the wrong metaphor. I think my job is to see what potato is there and from there, just work under their conditions.

A big thing for me is trusting the director, so I don't need to watch playback. I feel like the director is gonna tell me whether it's right or not.

At times, there are misunderstandings [during shooting]. Especially with green screen and not really knowing what it is that you're looking at, you really depend on the director to create that world for you.

Film is a collaborative business: bend over.