I've seen what a difference a good director can make to an actor's performance.
As an actor, you're in the hands of producers and directors. It's important to find out who you're working with.
It all has to do with the director, the captain of the ship. He sets the pace, the mood. If the director is quiet, the set is quiet. If the director is loud, then everybody has to be louder to be heard.
I can tell you it makes a big difference to have a director who is collaborative. What motivates a character in my mind could be completely different from what the director's thinking. You have to have those conversations ahead of time and throughout the process. It affects the performance.
I had always told my father that before working with him in the same frame as an actor, which I was petrified to do, I wanted to learn from him, so I had pleaded with him for two years before he agreed to write and direct 'Mausam.' It was our dream project and a wonderful opportunity for us to work as a family.
I have always accepted films based on what my role is. Of course, I do look at who is playing the lead opposite me, the producer and the director.
My first time nude was with a woman director, so I thought it would be easy, but it wasn't.
My father always told me that story was first and foremost. We would watch not just his films but a lot of classic American films. My father was a great David Lean fan, and David Lean's one of my favorite directors. We would discuss films endlessly.
I tend to project my father figure onto any director that I'm working with, or mother, if I'm working with a female, or it can be confused.
When I was 16, I was in a film called 'The Patriot.' I spent every second I could on the set watching the director and his team bring America circa 1775 to life. From that moment on, I was hooked.
If I was ever gonna remake a Peckinpah film, it would be 'Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.' That's my favorite Peckinpah film.
I do a film because I like the story and I want to give life to a character - I don't necessarily have to agree with the director.
Alejandro Amenábar has a unique way of approaching movies and thinking about something which was new to me. It was different. I have a lot of respect for him so I just took a gamble.
Whenever I'm doing anything romantic with an actor, or if there's a director around, I never want anybody's wife to feel threatened by me.
It's such a strange combination that I'd be unhappy to make anything like that without Landis directing.
I was obsessed with Batman as a kid. I did the film in part just to be near the Batmobile. But I also think [director] Christopher Nolan made a very fine, intelligent film.
I'd worked in Clockwork Orange with Stanley Kubrick and since Stanley was such a prestigious director this opened all sorts of doors for me - one of them being Star Wars.
I have always been a director's actress.
Smokey and the Bandit was the first picture [Hal Needham ] directed, and I knew he could handle it. I had just directed Gator, and he saw my style and used that as a pattern.
No one wants to hear from the producer. He's the guy by the pool with a cigar in his mouth and a couple of lovelies on his arm. But when you're a director, they want to hear what you have to say about everything - the war, the world.
If I feel the role is not going to demand anything out of me, I don't do it. Either it has to be a terrific role, or the director has to be someone I am dying to work with. Or the costar has to be someone I really look up to.
When directors tell me they want a song like one, I tell them no song should be like another. I don't listen to directors.
When I'm choosing projects to be a part of it's always a combination of so many different things. The primary thing is the director. But a very important element is, is it different enough from anything else I've ever done, or what I've last done.
The first time I saw Douglas Sirk was in college. I didn't encounter him on the late, late, late show like a lot of people; people a little older than me, maybe. But I saw him already as someone to take special note of in an academic context in college. I was immediately in a state of visual splendor.
How people are around a director, it really does affect everything, every detail of the life of the movie.
