Director Qualities Quotes

I love his [Brad Furman] ferocious desire for perfection and his love of vitality, it feeds me, man. It feeds him and it feeds the whole crew. And he's got huge respect for talent. And that's why talent goes in and gives it 300% percent.

A great director, first, is highly intelligent. And he is also a dedicated and willing to work hard. Now those are easy things to identify. The third is the creativity, and that is very difficult to identify in advance. This is why so many of the directors who have started with me were my assistant - the first one was Francis Ford Coppola.

It was a fabulous experience shooting [in the Aviator], working with Leo [DiCaprio] and Danny Huston in the scene. It was great. I think what was most eye-opening about it was that [Martin] Scorsese was just like any good director you work with.

Well, 45-odd years of doing it, so we all pile up the things we like about directors and the things we don't like about directors. And sometimes they're very similar.

James DeMonaco is one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with. I think he shoots really well and all that, but the work environment he creates – he makes everyone feel respected, he makes everyone feel appreciated, and he’s a true collaborator.

I selfishly like a lot of first-time directors because they over-prepare, they're super eager, and there's very little ego.

What you want, as an actor, is a great leader. I can't bear it when I work with a director who is wishy-washy and says, "What did you think?"

I guess once you've been acting for a long time, you glean the great bits of good directors and the bad bits from other directors, and you know the way that you would like to be directed.

Rosemary Rodriguez directed on Rescue Me for us, and I love her. She's fantastic with actresses and she's got a great sense of humor. That was a huge thing for me.