If you're writing a screenplay for a feature, you don't have any involvement with the casting process, the editing process, the set design, the costume design, or any of that stuff.
Directing a film requires a different set of skills. It is a difficult job, and I am happy being an actor.
I've had a fantastic career playing great parts. In many ways, the colour of my skin has been an asset because I've been asked to play certain roles as a result. I don't apologise for playing them anymore than Robert de Niro is sorry for playing American-Italians.
The editors and the creators of 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette,' they are so good at casting and at finding these young, beautiful lunatics to go on the show.
Casting is storytelling.
I don't know who the actresses all are. I've never heard of Kate but I'm sure she'll do fine.
It takes two years to make a good film.
I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to casting, and it really is casting the best person for the role.
You just find the best actors that you can. There's an inherent drama within the framework of scares and killings and all that. In 'Scream,' there is very real drama that would be in almost any drama.
Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.
The casting of 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a dream. Anil Kapoor, as the sleazy TV host, diamonds winking in his earlobes, has never been better; the quietly understated Irrfan Khan turns in another bravura performance as the police inspector whose questioning brings out Jamal's story.
They can't make any of these talented young actors Fletch. You might as well make a movie called Chevy Chase.
The first thing I did for TV was a pilot for CBS.
I've never been known for being a team player, but I've adjusted to being part of a big cast and it has worked out beautifully.
If I get a good character, a suitable role, a good producer-director, only then will I do a film.
Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal.
Typecasting is really rampant in Hollywood, and because I played a costumed character and did it successfully, it was a real stigma.
If a filmmaker is making a movie about a nice Midwestern family or a story that needs a very white character or a black or a Chinese, then I don't expect to go up for it. But I know, especially in places like New York, there's no excuse not to see various colors.
Hmm, limelight... No, I'm not Sienna Miller or Angelina Jolie. I'm very lucky and happy, but I still find it very difficult to get good scripts and good roles. It's really a jungle out there.
I want to be in 'Avatar'. I want somebody to hire me to be Superman, a Chinese Superman or Spider-Man.
A lot of the time, you see all this ambition from these black actors, and it's just pouring off the screen. Because they don't often get a chance to work, and when they do, they don't usually get a chance to work with other black people.
I'm grateful that I have a theater career because television isn't kind to you when you're over forty.
Casting out devils is mere juggling; they never cast out any but what they first cast in.
The reason I am unemployed for six months out of every year is because I have to turn down most of the films I'm offered. If I didn't, I'd only ever play a dark, satanic count on a horse.
Character is plot, and casting is character.
