A lot of actors aren't particularly good directors. And they're not particularly good with other actors. That's kind of a fallacy.
In Hitchcock's eyes the movement was dramatic, not the acting. When he wanted the audience to be moved, he moved the camera. He was a subtle human being, and he was also the best director I have ever worked with.
There's a paraphrase about Orson Welles saying: "Great films are made by great directors and the rest are made by everyone else." I've been very lucky... before I start insulting the profession of directing, but I think a good director is everything and a bad director really is nothing at all.
I have no style. There are certain people who just have a visual sense that defines their work. You could probably watch 30 seconds of anything they do and you'll know exactly who directed it. I don't have that skill.
I never had a burning desire to direct. But Burt and I, on many pictures together, used to watch other directors and we realized that he or I could do a lot better.
Give me a good script, and I'll be a hundred times better as a director.
I think I'm good at amplifying an actor's strengths, and minimizing their weaknesses. And they all have strengths and weaknesses.
There are certainly better writers and directors than me, but I have worked very hard to earn credibility within the business as a quality writer and a good director.
Wes [Anderson] is brilliant, kind, and just absolutely fantastic. He was really amazing in the way he can just take ideas, turn them into such beautiful stories, and then bring them to life with these amazing films the way he does.
I've always thought Ed Burns was a profoundly underrated actor. He's a great director, obviously. A great director/writer. But I think he's a stunning actor, too.
I don't think I'm great at acting. I think I'm great at directing.
I would love to write a script where the main character is a woman. I know I can direct a film where the main character is a woman. I cannot write that film.
Some actors give you what you want. Some you have to make do what you want.
I think in the old days, films really went for the shock, with the blood and guts, but movies are getting better. The writing and directing have improved a lot, because the audience demands it.
I've directed enough in the theatre and a couple of films to know that - to feel fairly secure that if I find a story that I really like I can probably get it done somewhat.
Clint Eastwood is an extraordinary director because he knows the value of a buck. He knows where it will show on the screen.
I have a great respect for actors like Clint Eastwood, who's a wonderful director. I think two pictures that I directed were not successful, so I decided not to make any more.
I've read a hundred fantastic scripts that didn't pan out as films, and I completely put that on the directors. I've also read some mediocre scripts that have ended up being amazing, and I credit that to the directors. They're the storytellers. If you don't have a good storyteller, you really have nothing.
A director is a director is a director. Man or woman - it doesn't matter.
I always think it's a sign of a truly gifted director when they can move seamlessly between genres.
'Brokeback Mountain' just blew me away. I'll always remember talking to Heath Ledger just after he finished that movie and he was going on about working with Ang and how incredible he was.
Your own barometer is all you have to go by, and often what makes a good director is knowing when not to say something. On occasions you can find yourself on a film set where the person who is wearing the director's hat is only trying to justify his position.
Being open to what's happening in front of you is the most important thing about being a director. To allow the magic to exist and to be light enough on your feet to harness it as it's happening. That's what makes cinema interesting.
A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted to do. They didn't sit there and think about it.
But only if I believe that my directing talents will improve the material I'd be working on. I want to make sure I don't sacrifice beautiful material on the altar of my direction.
