Words matter. These are the best Directing Quotes from famous people such as Matt Dillon, Mary McCartney, Sondra Locke, Genndy Tartakovsky, Diego Luna, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Directing myself definitely made me a better actor. And, you know, I think actors have the best track record when they turn to directing. Writers, too. I knew how to direct actors because I’ve been there and I know what I like.
You know, Im directing a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios at the moment, so Ive been taken back to those times. There is a photograph of me aged three months on one of the sofas in the studio, so I was there before I can remember being there.
When the actor you’re developing a rapport with is directing, you feel much more camaraderie about scenes, and you can relate in a much tighter way.
To me, storytelling is a mystery. Especially when you’re directing.
To me, directing movies is just that. It’s a need to question myself and set the things that disturb me on the table.
I did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read the script the night before shooting started.
One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing them, is that there’s no confusion about who’s to blame: you are.
I’ve been directing more and more the last few years, I find it an enjoyable challenge.
I had heard all sorts of stories about Woody Allen’s directing – directorial approach. And some of them turned out to be myth, but one of them was that he doesn’t rehearse, and another was that he doesn’t really direct. If he doesn’t like it… he cuts it out of the movie or even replaces you. And he doesn’t talk to you.
I thought that there might be something unsatisfying about directing two Tolkien movies after ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I’d be trying to compete with myself and deliberately doing things differently.
I’ve travelled a huge amount, but almost all of it has been through work. I spent five years stationed in London in the special services of the American Air Force, producing and directing shows for the troops, which I absolutely loved.
I went to film school so I have a writing and directing background, and I think a lot of the material I’m interested in writing and getting out there is stories about anti-heroes and people you should just not ordinarily root for – trying to figure out a way of appealing to people they wouldn’t normally appeal to.
What I’m having is this conflict in my life right now, that in New York, I see my directing friends and I see acting friends and they’ve all got this level of passion about either or both of those directions that I’ve never really found myself having.
Directing is really my favorite thing to do, but if I never directed again, I’d be okay if all the work I did was good.
I always want to be telling stories in whatever fashion I can, and directing is really just understanding and learning a different element of that storytelling process.
Writing and directing, to me, was the logical evolution from my life as an actor: going from telling someone else’s story to actually creating my own. Perhaps one day I will do all three: write, direct, and act in the same production. That might get a little hectic, though.
In the Justice Department, responsibility for overseeing and directing investigations is lodged in the department’s prosecutors.
I’ve been doing a bit of screenwriting and producing, and even a bit of directing.
Culturally, as women, we’re raised to be very concerned with others’ approval in a way that men aren’t, but an inevitable part of directing and being visionary is that you have to be a boss, and as such, not everyone is going to like you all the time or agree with your choices.
I have no interest in directing. I’ve no talent for it.
I was the first woman to win a Tony for directing, but the second woman came along five minutes later.
I think what makes a good actor’s director is somebody who understands what I’m doing and is respectful of it, but who also has a vision and is directing me toward their vision in a way that feels productive.
In a nutshell, directing ‘The Gift’ was all about understanding how the complex machine that is ‘Game of Thrones’ works.
Well you know, Woody doesn’t rehearse, as opposed to my own method of directing where I really work with actors around a round table for weeks, examining the values of the material, so his technique is very different.
Writing feels safe, you know, it’s a hard job, but at least you’re in your office or wherever you are and there’s no one standing over your shoulder staring at what you’re writing. And when you’re directing, everybody’s looking over your shoulder.
Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business.
When you’re directing, you see your ideas. You see them created right in front of you on the monitor and the sound stage. You get that experience all over again when you get into the editing room and you start playing with it.
Directing is: you’re overwhelmed the whole time. Your mind never stops. If you care about it. You wake up in the morning and you begin thinking about it and then you go to sleep at night and you’re still thinking about it.
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.
France isn’t just any country in Europe, and its president is not an ordinary leader in the world. Sometimes directing or leading the way is not enough, he has to initiate policies, as Nicolas Sarkozy was able to demonstrate during his term.
Music runs through everything I do – I even think musically; even when I was acting, but, especially, when I am directing. Directing is very musical.
One thing that everybody told me about directing was, ‘Never compromise’. And the whole job is a compromise. So it’s very paradoxical. How do you not compromise when the whole thing is about compromise?
At Hofstra, I got a very well rounded education. I studied acting, but they wouldn’t let me just study acting. I had to take classes in play analysis, directing, producing. I had no idea this would ever be relevant. And, of course, it’s what I used the rest of my life.
There’s only a certain amount of times in my life where I’m going to get to experience every single person directing their energy and focus on you, screaming at you.
All the theories that acting is reacting to imaginary circumstances as though they are real, and directing is turning psychology into behavior, those are all stabs at something that can’t be taught. All the great actors can’t talk about what they do, and they don’t want to begin to talk about it. They just do it.
I think eventually I’d love to get into directing.
2021 is my 40th year working in the industry and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than directing ‘Holding.’ It’s a beautiful piece of writing with a great story and fantastic, full-bodied characters.
I love directing actors. In the last few years, I have started expanding my directing into workshops for actors who truly want to grow and learn. My mom was a high school drama teacher, and teaching makes me very happy. My workshops are nurturing.
Really, anyone in the business who transitions into directing as a writer or editor or an actor or a cinematographer, at some point you have to kind of take a leap and say, ‘I’m committed to this.’
The last few years I’ve been saying I was ready to quit. It wasn’t that interesting to me. Now that I’m directing, it’s all new again.
The process of writing and directing drives you to such extremes that it’s natural to feel an affinity with insanity. I approach that madness as something dangerous, and I’m afraid, but also I want to go to it, to see what’s there, to embrace it. I don’t know why, but I’m drawn.
In 2000, I realized I had reached that certain age when the parts get scarcer. So I decided to try my hand at directing.
I had kicked around the idea for Good Eats when I was directing commercials.
Directing a film was something I was yearning to do. I always wanted to see if I had the capacity to be a good storyteller.
Part of Washington keeping its promises is a focus on directing more dollars into our local classrooms.
Looking back, the most challenging thing for me was actually directing. It’s very tough. Being in front of the camera is easy since the director can tell me what to do. But being the director and giving people directions is the toughest thing for me.
I’ve been directing for 25 years almost, and I’ve only directed nine films in that time because I like to be careful.
I do like directing other people’s material.
As a director, your work is finished only when it’s on the screen. But I will always be an actor who occasionally directs. And no, I have no interest in directing myself. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on both jobs at once.
It’s hard to get material. I haven’t made a movie before. I have two episodes of television that I think have come in really great, but it’s really hard to get directing work.
The most important decision you can make as a showrunner when you’re doing a pilot is who’s in it and who’s directing it.
This is one of the benefits, as well as one of the difficulties of directing a member of your family. You know where the buttons are. You can push them if you want.
I have a great team. A lot of my focus every day is with my television and film career, directing and producing, and I guess you can say that my moonlighting gig is Tropfest. Obviously, when I am not working I am in the Tropfest office full-time.
I did a video with Mick Jagger down in Rio de Janeiro. But I played a video director, and that’s the closest I’ve gotten to directing, except Bob Dylan came and had a few meetings with me about doing a video for him.
A big part of directing animation is deciding what you really want to do and making sure it’s about something. My favorite thing about animation is the storytelling. You can really dig into the story and spend time with the writers. The writers don’t just write and leave.
If I had to choose between a great acting job and a good directing job, I’d choose the directing job.
I want to act for the rest of my life – and I also want to pursue directing. Watching Bill Condon direct ‘Twilight’ kind of made me think, ‘OK yeah, I really want to do this now.’ This idea that you can make an image in your head and be in full control of how it comes out – I thought that was really cool.
The hardest part about directing is getting everyone on the same page.
I definitely want to do other things outside of acting like producing, directing.
I like directing myself; I feel like it’s one less person to give notes to. There’s an efficiency in it. I’m also kind of a control freak. So I like the fact that it gives me more control in the overall picture.
The only thing that gets me back to directing is good scripts.
I mean… directing is a holy, unpleasant experience, to be perfectly honest.
Acting requires emotional flexibility and demands, and directing is more cerebral and managerial and a tactical kind of thing.
I fell out of love with acting and in love with directing.
The directing is something that is incredibly satisfying to me and challenging to me because it’s asking me to draw on everything I’ve been able to absorb over all these years of acting and having all this set experience.
I’ve always been passionate about directing.
I started making music videos in my twenties and made my first feature, ‘Guncrazy,’ at 29. I then spent the greater part of my thirties directing features.
I spent most of my 20s working as an actor. I started writing and directing because I was frustrated with the types of roles that were available to young women.
If I dream that I’m directing, it’s not a film, it’s like a commercial for cotton candy, and I’ve got four feet of cotton candy all around me that I’ve got to break through, like a brick wall or a fortress.
I made adult films for over 12 years. Apart from the directing aspect, I did all of it – the filming, the editing and the stills. I shot about 300 movies, which was great fun.
Acting, for me, is exhausting. I’m always more energized by directing. It’s more intense to direct. I can pop in and express myself, then pop out again. It’s a huge passion for me.
I was on ‘The O.C.’ and had a small part, which wasn’t very challenging. I was a bit bored, so I started shadowing directors and they finally gave me a shot. From there, it led to directing other television shows. I am trying to direct a feature film, so we’ll see what happens.
I don’t find acting and directing schizophrenic in any way. I find it completely easy to move between the two.
Theatre is something that keeps me very alert, and I am actively creating whether I am on stage or directing. In films, I feel I become more of an introvert, going deeper in the realism of a character.
For me, running a set and directing has been the most rewarding thing of my life and a happy surprise, because it was never really on my radar.
Directing feels great; I’m really happy to be doing this.
I have no interest in directing. I’d be a bad director.
There are so many factors that go into directing. It’s honestly a logistical nightmare for a lead to direct themselves in an episode.
I love directing. I love creating things that I don’t necessarily even have to be in. I like creating worlds. So I’m getting into writing movies and selling movies and television shows and creating worlds that then get to live beyond me.
Directing a film in Hindi is definitely on the cards.
When I audition for something, I don’t even want to think about who the other actors are in it, who’s directing it.
I learned my business in the theater and in television, particularly working with the actors. You can learn much more in the theater than directing a movie, because then you have no time when you are shooting a movie to really work with the actors. You have to learn this craft somewhere else.
The beauty of my job is I do all different kinds of film directing, not just surf films anymore. And I do stuff from commercials to short films to working on feature films, and none of it is based from where I live. It’s all based elsewhere, so I can live anywhere and commute to where I need to go.
Becoming a writer, and then a director, was taking my creative life in my own hands, and wanting to have stories that I wanted to put out into the world – and I have fallen in love with directing.
In England, I’ve had a more balanced career directing and acting. It can be quite difficult to juggle the two careers.
Directing is a unique endeavor where you are in charge of so many people. As a writer, it is sort of the opposite.
I love directing. It’s where my heart is, and it’s the way my mind works.
I really, really love directing films.
Directing is something I always wanted to do. I started when I was 13 directing scenes in high school and then plays in college with my theatre company.
As a viewer, I liked screenwriter Park Jae-bum’s writing and director Kim Hee-won’s directing.
Storytelling is storytelling. You still play by the same narrative rules. The technology is completely different. I don’t use one piece of technology that I used when I started directing.
When I first started directing, I could have chosen a more lucrative path, with sitcoms and things like that. But I knew enough after the experiences I had in front of the camera that I was not going to do that, because I was just going to work on my own things or work with people I respected.
I feel like directing is more about who the individual is rather than if they’re a man or a woman. It’s kind of hard to generalize and group all of us female filmmakers into one group, like we’re all going provide you with the same thing, because we’re not. We’re all individuals.
‘The X-Files’ from the beginning was a very visual show, and with Bob Mandel directing the pilot and Dan Sackheim being involved in the production of the pilot and directing the first episode, they brought a visual style to it that was elaborated on by so many good directors.
A lot of scripts that I was given I didn’t feel were right for me, because I didn’t feel anything for them – I didn’t feel like I was going to change in life and start directing.
Definitely directing is the thing I like the most because this is where everything you know can be used. It’s the most personal process ever. It’s the most demanding one, but again, rewarding.
Business is usually a team sport. There isn’t one great person sitting there directing things. You can’t run an effective business like that.
In my mid-20s, I was directing episodes of ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ and ‘Peter Gunn.’ I was pretty much on course and – as I sometimes joke – was prepared to devote my life to become the second best film director in my family.
When I was in casting, we would bring somebody in, have them read their lines, maybe give them a few pointers, and hire them, and then once they go to the set and you have a director who’s directing them, that performance may not be anywhere near what you had in the audition, either good or bad.
I’d never thought of directing as an option for me. I don’t know why, because I’m incredibly bossy. I was surprised how collaborative it is. As the producer, you have to get the money and schedule on time, and that’s not what I do best.
Acting’s incredibly enjoyable, but sometimes it doesn’t feel quite enough. I’ve also written a script about the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. This will make me sound like a female Kenneth Branagh, but I can’t think of anything nicer than directing myself from a script I wrote.
Directing is a more pragmatic experience, where you have to deal with the restrictions of time and money that force you to make certain decisions you don’t have to make when you’re writing.
I had a feeling about directing Cocoon II: The Return. At first I wasn’t too interested because it was a sequel. Then I read the script and was excited by the relationships and its mystic quality.
They offered me that film before I did Frida and I said, no, I’m not capable of directing. Then after seeing Julie direct, I was inspired by it. She motivated me to do it, because we don’t have role models as woman for directors.
Given a choice, I prefer directing a play to a film.
I’m 64 years old, and I’ve been acting now for 42 years. Only recently have I thought to myself, ‘Hmmm, it may be interesting to start directing.’
I love directing more than anything in the world, and I love being in the editing room. I love cutting. When I’m shooting, I cut it in my head anyway. That’s not to say that it always turns out that way, but you have a sense when you’re composing a sequence or a scene how you want it to look anyway.
Directing is more what I would like to get into eventually. Frankly, I feel like it would be a waste if I didn’t because I’ve spent so much time on film sets, and I know how they work, and I love them, and I love leading them. I would like to do that as a director definitely.
I love directing; it felt right to me when I did ‘Flying Lessons’. It’s something I will do again. Really, you can always be working and developing. That’s something that’s kind of ever constant.
With directing, it’s all out there, in the moment and in real-time. The pressure and all of the eyes are on you, and you’ve gotta do it. That is the place that made me nervous.
When I came to New York, I told everyone I was a writer/director, and they said, ‘No.’ There was a rule. You could be one or the other. They ordained me writer. But then I won the Obie for directing ‘Spunk,’ and the rules changed.
I act here and there but you have to commit so far out in advance when you’re directing that you – I’m kind of booked six months out, so it’s hard.
The fact is, you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to get two.
I was in film school as an undergrad with a focus on directing. Once I started working on shoots, I realized, ‘Oh, I really like this cinematography thing.’
Directing film is the hardest thing I have ever done.
On ‘Taxi,’ I had the great fortune of directing many wonderful episodes, none more classic than Reverend Jim’s driving test. It was maybe the funniest show I did.
I have been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years, and in 1970, when I first started directing, I said, ‘If I could pull this off, I can some day move to the back of the camera and stay there.’
I’d like to have a go at directing.
I have a lot of appreciation for what people do in front of the camera as well as behind the camera. I don’t think I could like one without the other. Eventually, I think the road will lead me down to producing or directing, because it’s more about problem solving.
I have a bunch of concepts and ideas that I want to do but I have also been growing my production company in general and looking to branch out of projects that I am directing and producing.
It’s a treat and daunting to be directing someone like Judi Dench, who’s made more films than I’ll ever make in my lifetime.
I’m very interested in directing actors – many directors direct cameras.
My first inkling that I might have a yen for directing came when I realized I enjoyed creating plays for my various sports teams more than I actually liked playing the game.
I feel like I could be good at directing or producing, but I don’t know.
Acting had been a hobby that turned into a career, the directing was a hobby that turned into a career, and music just really allowed me to find another way to express myself. I started playing bass in November 1996, and by June 1998 I was doing my first live show.
Three-quarters of directors waste four hours on a shot that requires five minutes of actual directing. I prefer to have five minutes’ work for the crew – and keep the three hours to myself for thought.
I don’t know why directing is not something I’m interested in.
The holy spirit means the invisible power of Jehovah, holy because he is holy. This power of Jehovah operated upon the minds of honest men who loved and who were devoted to righteousness, directing them in the writing of the Bible.
‘Hibakusha’ is an animated docu-drama that Choz Belen and I are directing, and it will take you through the earliest memories of a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor named Kaz Suyeishi.
I actually have two children now, and sometimes I wonder if that’s it. Because they do make writing and directing more complicated and more difficult, especially now that they’re very young.
When I said yes to doing ‘Queen’s Gambit,’ I was feeling burned out on directing and movie-wise wasn’t sure what my next big project was going to be. So I said yes to doing this very different type of project that required a different skill set from me, sort of just to shake things up, if anything.
Communication isn’t just directing a guy on what to do: it’s passing the information along to the guy that’s next to you, and that’s where we make the calls come to life.
I was 16 and standing on Tottenham Court Road when this woman came over and asked me if I was an actress. She wanted me to audition for an online drama she was directing. I had time to kill, so I thought, ‘Why not?’
When I directed the third ‘Insidious’ film I loved it so much that I decided this is what I want to do from now on. I don’t even think I would write something as a screenplay now with no intention of directing it.
When you’re writing, in theory, everybody is serving you. When you’re directing, you’re serving everybody – in the guise of acting like everybody’s serving you. But you’re really serving the materials. You’re serving the actors. You’re in charge, but it’s not free.
At the end of the day, the one commonality that both Hindi cinema and Hollywood share is that they are full of talented and inspirational people. Outside of this, there are many differences, from the scheduling and rehearsal to promotion and directing techniques.
Playing Isabella in ‘Measure for Measure’ pushed me to my limits. Janet Suzman was directing, and she was very hard on me. I went through phases of not liking her at the time, but I loved her for it in the end.
You can’t wait for someone to discover you; you have to just get on and do it. Have confidence that directing is a very suitable job for a woman – with our gift for collaboration, listening, and reading the nuance of things.
When you are acting, you are just one piece of the puzzle. You don’t see how everything fits together. It feels like you have less authorship over the entire product. In directing, you take the entire picture into account, so you’re challenged in a different way.
I’m more lost when I’m not on tour. I’m in a bit of a muddle at nine o’clock – ‘Where’s the stage?’ On tour, there are people directing and supervising you.
People have said, ‘Why don’t you make your own company like Chan-wook Park has his own company,’ but my head is full of writing and directing and I don’t feel like I want to run a company. That’s not really within my personality as well.
But when I felt like I had something to prove? Then I got up early every morning and worked all day long. I didn’t know if I had any more talent than anyone else directing, but I knew I could work hard at it, and so I did.
Directing a movie is serious, it’s not a joke.
I didn’t train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.
With directing, you’ve got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I’m at the early stages of doing that again. There’s something all-consuming and addictive about that.
What really helps a guy to become an action hero today is the directing of the movie. All those fast cuts.
When you’re writing, it’s all up to you, and you don’t have to make any compromises. And when you’re directing, there’s this intense pleasure you get from working with all these really talented people, and pooling the efforts towards a common goal. I like all the aspects of film-making.
I don’t direct so that I can have an identity and so I can go on to CGI movies. I had a big identity as an actor, and that’s not what I’m looking for from directing. Directing is a whole different goal.
As long as I’m creating, I am happy… whether directing, producing, writing, acting.
I hope always to be busy, even if only directing an orchestra in the pit. However, I should prefer to produce movies or be the directing head of a radio corporation.
Writing and directing your own film, for me, has been the best experience of my life.
Film directing has perfected my theater directing. I think when I first started directing, a lot of my stuff was very lateral; I was afraid to have the actors’ backs turned away, afraid to put them too far upstage, and I think once I did more things with film, I got more interested in composition.
It’s such a strange combination that I’d be unhappy to make anything like that without Landis directing.
I have always believed that directing a film is like telling a story. You have to tell it well so that it is appreciated.
I would love to direct but I feel like directing is a whole separate craft and so I tend to respect it as a separate craft that I would need to study first. So, right now I’m still trying to do certain things as an actor and until I get bored of that or I feel completely fed by that then I’ll move into directing.
It was really an experience, being my first time directing a movie. The scenes that I was in, Brooke really directed me all the time. And the scenes that both of us were in, Brooke directed those. Come to think of it, Brooke directed most of the scenes.
It’s not easy to strap yourself down to a desk and bash on a keyboard when you know you can direct lots of films, because directing films is fun and interactive and gregarious. Writing isn’t.
I think I would have a better time writing films rather than directing.
Theatre has given me lot of opportunities such as directing monologues in ‘Saat Teri Ekvees.’
In a daydream sort of way, I think it would be pretty cool to direct a movie. But I have been on movie and TV sets and know it is hard work. I like directing it in my mind. It is easier.
Definitely, as I get older and my taste buds change, I want to do different things. I’m not ready for directing yet, you know, maybe when I get my big boy voice; I don’t have that yet, but right now definitely producing for sure.
Directing all six episodes was a really unique experience, right? Because normally TV is run through the showrunner system, and Marvel didn’t do that on ‘Loki.’
I found that the same things I loved about performing were the things I liked about directing and creating a piece – striking a chord that was in tune with the world and was reflecting back what I saw, just from a different angle.
Linux is a complex example of the wisdom of crowds. It’s a good example in the sense that it shows you can set people to work in a decentralized way – that is, without anyone really directing their efforts in a particular direction – and still trust that they’re going to come up with good answers.
I was on cruise control from ’85 to ’95, and it was my fault. There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds, when I was not doing any original material. I wasn’t directing. I wasn’t writing. That’s not who I am.
I’ve been working with a lot of people out in Hollywood on writing scripts, screenplays, directing, producing, and making music.
After the Oscar for ‘Shampoo,’ I had a sense, even as I was walking up to get it, that this was the height of where I was going to go as an actress. And I felt that now was the time, if I wanted a longer life in the arts, that I had to jump from acting to directing.
Writers are first directors. When directing our own scripts, we would have a better vision and clarity than directing the stories penned by others. I personally think that a writer’s job is tough than a director’s.
When I’m acting, I’m a woman but when I am directing, I am an animal because I am very demanding.
I’ve heard directing talked about as being a benign dictatorship, and I think that’s probably the best way a director should be. They’re open to collaboration and feedback from people, but ultimately, it’s got to be that one person’s vision. That’s what I think makes a film really stand out.
Man is a spiritual intelligence, who has taken flesh with the object of gaining experience in worlds below the spiritual, in order that he may be able to master and to rule them, and in later ages take his place in the creative and directing hierarchies of the universe.
It wasn’t until I was in that world, directing shows and movies, that I realized basically my job is to give back to another generation what the generation before me gave to me.
I am a creative person, and knew my bigger picture would be writing, directing, and producing; that’s what I’ve always thought I would get to one day.
People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children’s book. I say, ‘If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children’s book’, but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you’re directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.
I’m interested in directing attention and focus, explored through playing cello.
Honestly, as you can imagine, it really isn’t all that fun directing yourself, running back and forth to the monitors to see if you’re terrible or not.
I got my SAG card quite unexpectedly. I was here in Los Angeles doing a play called ‘Vanities’ – it was 1976, I believe – and I got invited by Dustin Hoffman, whom I’d met in New York, to come audition for a movie he was directing.
I don’t like directing a lot of people. So trying to keep things really simple and elegant is my preferred way of working.
People think that the directors direct actors. No. Really, what the director’s doing is directing the audience’s eye through the film.
The one thing Marvel does is think outside the box, going all the way back to Ang Lee directing the first ‘Hulk.’ They like to go outside the genre.
I would love to continue acting. Maybe one day I would like to try writing and directing.
There is an established tradition of actors directing films that have a particular, personal meaning for them – Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and most recently George Clooney to name a few. Remarkably, their films share an unusually high percentage of being very good.
A conductor can do wild things which can feel forced, but if you’re directing from within the orchestra, you can’t do that, things have to feel natural.
Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying. I’ve never been happier.
The art of photography is all about directing the attention of the viewer.
If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.
What’s great about working on a sitcom is that I spend so much time with people who are in other fields as well, such as writing, directing, and/or camera operating. Being on set is like being on a playground. I go from one thing to the next, and I’ve learned so much and hope to continue learning.
I know, just from directing television, where you have a huge support system of producers and writers and a script supervisor – not just the cast but a crew of 100 people – there are, as a director, hundreds of questions that you have to answer every day.
Directing, I get all kinds of inspiration. It’s working with people. It’s a lot more fun.
Riskin went into directing and made a film with Cary Grant which applied to the letter all the ideas which had made his comedies famous. It had everything except that little something – and the film was a failure.
The hardest part of directing is the choosing. Unlike an actor who can do a variety of work, it is a year of your life, you can’t afford to get it wrong.
I think the three Mexican directors that came before me did a very good job in Hollywood because they came in and started directing things like ‘Harry Potter.’
I think that directing is the ultimate martyred task of filmmaking, that it has nobility to it. It takes three years to make a film, for the most part. I think it requires the attentiveness of a mother hen.
There’s really no precedent for someone like me gaining clout in the space that I’m in – a black woman directing films in Hollywood.
Directing is definitely something that is in my life for keeps, and the more I do it, the more I realize how much I want to learn and how much I have to give. And it kind of bolsters my acting – it enhances it in a really wonderful way that I wasn’t expecting.
Directing, writing, producing and starring is just too tough.
I will not be doing any more sitcoms, unless it’s my own or a movie or I’m directing.
Careers don’t interest me. The only thing that interests me is continuing to be a poet on one level or another, whether acting or writing or directing.
Directing movies is the best job there is, that’s all. I can hardly say a word after that. It’s just a great job.
To attempt this would be like seeing without eyes or directing the gaze of knowledge behind one’s own eye. Modern science can acknowledge no other than this epistemological stand-point.
Well, I’m directing a lot of television these days.
It doesn’t matter what I’m doing – I wish it was something else. If I’m producing, I wish I was directing. If I’m directing, I wish I was doing almost anything else!
I’m interested in directing movies about situations that I’ve lived, so they are almost a personal essay about what I’ve come to believe in.
I thought about being an actor, and I thought about directing, but writing truly became something I needed to do just to stay sane.
Because I’m a little ADD, I would like to incorporate even more facets to my career eventually, such as writing and directing films.
Directing seems like a logical progression for me, although I would never put myself in a film of mine. How can you? Putting on make-up while you’re trying to concentrate on setting up the next shot? No, no.
There’s nobody who loves being around actors working more than David Mamet, especially actors bringing his tremendous dialogue to life. I’ve never seen a movie director who was happier to be directing a movie than Dave.
I think the older that I’m getting, the more I’m understand what a privileged job I have, and what an opportunity I have. Now I’m directing films and I’m getting my first movie in America off the ground, and you start to understand how the system really works.
Being a good actor is incredibly difficult. But the amount of responsibility is so much less on your shoulders than directing.
I started as a writer; I started writing when I was little. The acting and directing was an outgrowth of my desire to tell stories.
There are times when I am directing, and there are a couple of moments I didn’t get the way I wanted, but I know I still have other angles to shoot and I have to be done by noon; I move on.
Professionally, I like doing one thing at a time and enjoy directing the most.
I want to die in the saddle. I love writing, producing, acting, directing.
Directing is literally what I’ve always wanted to do, ever since I was a kid. So I love the career I’ve built behind the camera.
I starred in a Broadway play that was Sidney Poitier’s first directing job and the cast was Lou Gossett, Cicely Tyson, Diana Ladd and I played a Jewish kid who offered himself as a slave to two Columbia University students as reparations.
I love acting and will take all the time to continue to act. But sometimes I’d like to try my hand at directing.
I don’t write on set. I also – in a funny way, I don’t really differentiate between the writing and directing. I think it’s all sort of the same thing.
I’ve been writing a lot, I’ve a few projects I’m trying to finance, I do some acting, I do some directing… Apart from that, if I could get lower that a ten handicap on my golf game I’d be thrilled.
I teach film directing, inasmuch as you can. It’s not really possible to teach film direction, but I sit there as a sort of testimony of experience and know-how, I suppose.
I completely love directing.
I certainly was an actor and then I drifted more towards writing and directing.
As everyone knows, comedy is the toughest emotion to handle. Everything about it is difficult – writing, directing and acting.
I did a lot of small black-box theater in New York when I was starting out. I’d get a group of actors together to do workshops and readings. And I ended up directing three or four productions.
I studied as an actor at the theatre conservatoire in Quebec, but by the time I got to my third year, I was more interested in directing. There’s more to it than helping actors get round a stage: it’s a wonderful way of telling stories.
Acting is certainly my first love, but writing and directing has been on the ‘to do’ list for a long time.
I really love diving in, head first, with directing and not having to worry about hair, makeup or lines.
Directing films is easier said than done. The job needs a lot of sensibility to put many things in place.
There’s a lot to be said for women who want to focus primarily on acting. Other women, on the other hand, aspire to combine their work in acting with other ventures in fashion, business, directing, writing, producing, etc. It’s a very personal decision.
It’s been very exciting for me to start directing and conducting, exploring the symphonic repertoire, which I’ve always loved.
The funny thing about directing is that you have your own opinions, but it’s a collaboration. Directing is a group effort. Even though you might think something works, the smartest thing you can do as a director is try and weigh the opinions of the people around you.
I have no interest in writing, directing or producing.
Depending on who’s directing you, sometime it’s heightened or more naturalistic, but generally you’re trying to represent something truthful.
I studied directing prior to acting and I’ve done music videos and documentaries and things that were sort of well-received.
I used to get defensive when people asked me, ‘Is it the control that you like about directing?’ I used to say, ‘No!’ But now I’m older, I say, ‘Yeah, it absolutely is!’
I’ve always been interested in character-driven pieces, and my approach to directing is through acting.
As a director on ‘The Office,’ there’s a tremendous weight that comes with directing features. I was being asked to direct a show that had already won an Emmy for Best Comedy. Steve Carell and the cast had already won the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards.
With directing, you always have three or four things constantly on the go. It’s a tough industry and a tough time, particularly if you’re doing things a little outside the box or independent features.
There is so much I’d love to do in this industry. I’m honestly interested in directing even a little more so than acting.
I have a lot of ideas for videos, and I want to pursue directing. This is one of the goals I have always had.
Directing a Hindi movie for the first time was easy because Hindi films have been batwing doors for me since 1992.
Playing Michael Jackson’s memorial service was one of the hardest things to do because it was literally a few days after he had passed, and Kenny Ortega, who was directing it all, was like ‘You’re gonna come out and sing.’ So not only was I completely shaken up, I didn’t know how I was gonna get through it.
If I’m acting at all, it’s going to be under Marvel contract, or I’m going to be directing. I can’t see myself pursuing acting strictly outside of what I’m contractually obligated to do.
As a director, when you embrace a project, you try to understand as much as you can about its world, and you do that by embracing and engaging with people who are in that world. Then it’s down to your best instincts, which is what most directing is about anyway.
The stories are being written by men, and it’s men who are directing it. As long as that continues, you won’t be seeing much change in the way women are portrayed in cinema.
People don’t realize I make records eight or nine months before they come out. I’m directing the videos; I have a lot of work to do. I’m very involved in all that stuff creatively.
I’m trying my hand at directing. I’m doing an independent movie that we haven’t started casting yet, but it’s like an edgy version of ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ’48 Hours,’ only with two women in it.
There are a million things I’d rather do before designing clothes: directing, landscaping.
I think directing a film is like a woman going through labour. After she goes through the labour pain and delivers her first baby, she says she will not going to have another baby. Then, when she sees the child growing up, she decides to have one more child!
I started directing videos at the same time that Michel Gondry was starting to direct videos, and I watched what he’d do. They all seemed to be pushing some new visual effects idea, but never just for spectacle. They all captured a feeling.
When I was a kid, I would make kung fu movies with the kids in the neighborhood, and I would be the guy behind the camera directing everybody, but they were all very silly little shorts and comedy bits.
I’ve always wanted to work with Elizabeth Banks. She’s so talented and funny, and she’s become this force of nature – directing, producing. Being around her is kind of inspiring.
Whether it’s making music or directing a video, whatever we do we do it quickly.
In acting, you are fulfilled if you give justice to your role… if you are able to do a credible performance and touch the audience. Same with directing. If you are able to draw out the best from your actors, then you fulfill your job as a director.
I liked Vittorio De Sica a lot, and I got to work with him once in a segment movie. He was a great director. He was a very charismatic character and a guy I watched a lot when he was directing.
I knew that I’d end up directing because I’m so hands-on with my films.
I like and I love everything that has to do with cinema: writing, directing, editing, creating music, and even acting.
I wrote my first play because I wanted to try directing something, and I couldn’t afford the rights – it was an adaptation of a book called ‘The Wave’ by Morton Rhue.
I always loved silent movies. I was not a specialist, but I loved them. And when I started directing, I became really fascinated by the format – how it works, the device of the silent movie. It’s not the same form of expression as a talkie. The lack of sounds makes you participate in the storytelling.
I’ve always been interested in directing, writing, and producing, so when I went behind the scenes, it was like a whole new world that I got to experience.
‘Room’ is a very subtly-made film, and directing awards tend to go to the flashier stuff, but it’s the Director’s section of the academy that make the decision, so I’m very proud they can see something in what I directed and wanted to reward it.
I want to do directing and acting. I can do them at the same time – it’s a challenge, but it’s my dream.
I was directing as a kid in movies, and that was always my strongest interest. When I was under contract at Universal, I conned an editing room out of them and spent my money to rent a camera and shoot film and make some movies.
As a storyteller, when you’re writing a movie and when you’re directing, you want to keep people entertained. That’s the whole point, right? It has to be entertaining.
You get money out of acting. You get gray hair out of directing. Actually, I get more of a rush from directing.
On ‘Half Nelson,’ I was credited as the director, we both co-wrote it and Anna was the producer. We didn’t know too many directing teams working at the time except the Coen brothers and that seemed to be the model, and people always know that they’re a team, whether the credit reflected that or not.
I’m not into just one thing; I always felt like I had to have my hand in everything revolving around what I do, whether it’s directing videos, making beats, making music, performing.
I enjoy doing my more intimate and less commercial pictures and also I enjoy directing.
Most TV shows are writing the next episode while you’re directing the one you’re doing, and they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do, and they’re putting it all together.
I’d said no to directing ‘Snowtown’ a few times and was quite scared of it, but I saw a story there that was worth telling.
I always think that the deal, once I do the script, sort of the experience I go through writing, which is everything you can imagine, but I always think it’s the one thing I can do when I’m directing is say is that it’s all about the actors, that I can say, ‘We’re all here to serve the actors.’
I know that when I’m writing, I always want to be directing.
The biggest challenge directing the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is just the importance of getting it right.
I enjoyed Jonathan Franzen’s ‘Freedom.’ Would I make that into a film? I think it’s better suited to television. That would very much be a dialogue and performance piece, and it would take some very skilful direction – but not my kind of directing. But I thought it was a real literary work.
I just don’t see where I could possibly fit in directing a feature.
Nucleic acids are the main information-carrying molecules of the cell, and, by directing the process of protein synthesis, they determine the inherited characteristics of every living thing. The two main classes of nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA).
Sidney Poitier was directing a film called ‘Hanky Panky.’ And he said, ‘Do you want to come with me to New York to see Gilda Radner in ‘Lunch Hour’ on Broadway? I said, ‘I don’t need to see her, I love her. I’ve wanted to write something for her for a long time. So it’s OK by me.’
I was never interested in becoming an actor. I was directing videos. I was never into acting. I was into shooting music videos. I’ve only ever been behind the camera. Never in front of it.
When I started producing, it was George Abbott directing and he would let me do the scenery. He just wanted to know where the doors were – the entrances, the exits; the tables, the props – and then I would hire the designer. I took charge of the visuals – scenery and costumes and so on. And, the shows looked wonderful.
Directing can be very lonely and quite intimidating.
Directing the television serial, ‘Thoda Sa Aasman,’ was a good learning experience and I can empathize better with producers.
I only did ‘Thor’ because it was Kenneth Branagh directing, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
I don’t think I’m great at acting. I think I’m great at directing.
I don’t see myself doing television, but I do see myself directing.
I had taken a bit of a sabbatical because I was producing and directing films. But acting has always been my passion and it is something that I will continue to do.
There’s people who live life authentically and there’s people who live a life of fabrication. And it begins with the question of how you’re gonna do your time. And these are observations I made about Folsom when I was there with Dustin Hoffman when he was directing ‘Straight Time.’
I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.
The things that I’m interested in directing are fiction, because then you’re not married to a particular reality.
When you’re a comic doing a special, it’s like you’re directing your first movie.
It was so weird that I would end up directing ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played,’ because, y’know, I’m not a big golfer myself. But I grew up around the game. My mom and dad kind of built their dream house off the 11th fairway of Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth.
I know that John Adams has had a very hard time directing French ensembles.
I’ve been playing the Wolfenstein games since I was a kid, and feel that their outlandish sensibility has deeply influenced my own writing and directing throughout my career.
Directing a film is a lot of physical work.
As far as writing and directing, I’m very focused on the thriller genre.
I don’t see myself directing the same movie twice.
But at a certain point, and I don’t really know… people have asked me this. I don’t know exactly what it was that pushed me towards directing, but I think it was a naive notion that if I directed I would be able to play all the roles. A kind of greed.
I love directing – it’s always so involving, so challenging.
I think I was never home when I was directing, because you’re either prepping, shooting, or editing, and then acting at the same time. It’s really time-consuming, but it was great fun.
It is not easy acting and directing yourself because you have to face the camera as well as look at the scene through the lens.
I’ve acted just to get to directing.
One of the many delights that I found in directing was that you plan so many things so meticulously so that they go smoothly. But you also have to leave time and space for spontaneous emotional moments to arise.
The things I want to focus on are music, writing, directing, and developing stuff.
As an actor, if you want to while shooting, you can run back to your trailer and take a nap. But you cannot do that while directing.
I was never interested in acting on film or in television, but I was always more inclined to writing and directing, and the exploration of character.
I can’t sit on my bum very long in a movie theater seat, and when I’m directing, I always want to move the camera or edit.
What happens on ‘Mad Men’ in terms of the acting and the writing and the directing, it’s superior. And yes, it has tremendous cache and buzz because it’s become iconic, but it also deserves all the kudos and the awards as well, because it’s a beautiful show to look at.
Directing is very close to choreography; you deal with space, time, emotions, lighting, making beautiful images.
I came from a background of directing behind-the-scenes documentaries.
I stopped directing in 2001 for four or five years, until I did the TV series ‘Masters Of Horror.’ I had been working steadily as a director since 1970. That’s a long time. I was burned out.
Oddly, in a sense, I still have more confidence as a director than my ability as a writer. Somehow, directing is just really easy. It’s just about being really honest about how you feel about what you’re seeing.
It was strange initially to be directing Winona Ryder. Of course it was.
I use something that is a real staple in the directing world. It’s called a dance floor. You lay it down so that it’s so smooth you can roll around, and you can put furniture on top of it. It’s seamless and you don’t see it.
I don’t see a big difference between the job of directing a low-budget movie and the job of directing a big-budget movie.
One of the things I’ve learned from animation is that some guys are really good at writing, some guys are really good at design, some guys are really good at directing. It’s almost like working in a band – not everybody plays every instrument.
There’s no doubt in the world that directing makes you a better actor. Me, anyway. There’s no doubt in the world that it makes me a more collaborative actor.
I learn a new thing every single day about acting, about directing, about producing.
Neil Mahoney was definitely the visionary in taking ‘Freak Dance’ from stage to screen. He made it more cinematic. He brought the choreography, all the ways to shoot that. I was more the director of actors. I was in front of the camera directing, and he was behind the camera directing.
If being an attractive woman got you attention for directing, then the entire ‘best director’ category would be comprised of models. To me, that is just the most ludicrous connection that you could make.
I went to New York City to Columbia University, and with the first directing exercise, I knew I was a director.
Directing ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ has been an intense and incredible journey for which I am hugely grateful. I have Universal to thank for that.
I haven’t directed a film since ‘Appaloosa,’ and I’ve been looking for something because I love the directing thing.
Whatever I do – whether it’s directing, producing – I just come at things from characters, from stories, from jokes and scene rhythms. I’ll always have that at the epicenter, I think.
What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.
I stopped working a few years ago because I just lost a spark that I’d had before. I thought I’d just try writing, and maybe start directing, but I did it very quietly.
There should be more women directing; I think there’s just not the awareness that it’s really possible.
The biggest edge I live on is directing. That’s the most scary, dangerous thing you can do in your life.
Directing is much more satisfying to me than acting.
It’s a tremendous asset if you have a visual eye because you can make huge visual statements in a very theatrical way and play to the strength of theatre. But the high end of directing is working with actors and making the acting the best it can be.
I grew up on Long Island, and from as early as I can remember, as far back as first grade, I had two real passions – one of them was putting on plays, and the other was journalism. I was directing plays and editing school papers from first grade on, all the way through college.
After graduating from University, I began directing in theatre too, and I’ve been directing, writing and acting ever since, which has allowed me to continue this traveler lifestyle.
I’ve always been creating my whole life, you know. I’ve just had a need to create, whether it was sculpting or writing or directing. It’s just ever since I was a kid, I don’t know.
Directing is a very, very difficult job.
I found, through the process of doing ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ that I really love directing movies and I love writing books and so this will become the centerpiece of my career for the next ten or twenty years. Doing these adaptations.
I love the incredible variety of demands directing makes on you, from the entrepreneur to the hustler to the deal-maker to the writer; to directing actors and the camera and working with music, sound, marketing and promotion. It uses so many sides of your brain.
I can’t imagine directing from someone else’s script.
The whole chameleon thing about acting. That’s why I’m moving towards directing – it’s a much more healthy occupation.
I don’t know if people realize how hard I work, because sometimes people ask me for my secret. The truth is that I don’t have any secrets apart from the fact that I’ve been directing theater and film for twenty years and trying at every stage to make my work better.
When I’m directing actors, I often find myself slipping in sports metaphors, like: ‘Don’t go for the punch line here, just put it up on a T-ball stand so she can hit it out of the park.’
I don’t think about the gender thing very much. But when I speak at schools, I’ve had female students say to me afterwards, “I never envisioned myself being a director, since I’ve never seen women do it.” But after seeing me, they can picture themselves directing, so maybe we’ll see more female directors.
If I could really move my career much more into predominantly directing, I would jump at that.
Actors always feel more comfortable when there’s an actor directing, in terms of vocabulary and breaking down a scene.
After directing ‘Sanam Re,’ I was contemplating what to do – direct or act. I got really good opportunities of direction but I felt that if I have to act then I should do it now.
Eric McCormack is directing talent waiting to happen.
With VR, you are directing in a 360-degree environment. The biggest challenge is that the viewer can look anywhere. They might look at the the weakest moments, the very things you edit for TV. You don’t control where they look.
While my megalomania knows no bounds, directing is one thing I have never really done. I directed a couple of plays. That was the extent of it.
I can’t tell you if one day I’ll be standing up there with an Oscar or directing, but I am going to be the best human being I possibly can.
I’m a bigger fan of my directing than in acting. Acting is just harder. You know, not harder, per se, because directing is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But it’s harder to enjoy my work as an actor, you know.
Once you see the leader of the team, the point guard of the team who has the ball pretty much the whole time in the game directing everybody, I think it just rubs off on everybody.
I knew it was called ‘Dunkirk,’ Christopher Nolan was directing it, and it was a war film. That was all anyone knew.
I’m just ah, actually developing a tv show for HBO, and I’m directing a film this summer, and actually I’m doing some live shows out in western Canada.
Directing, editing, and everything about filmmaking has definitely changed me as an actor.
A lot of critics sometimes get into analyzing the way actors direct versus non-actors directing. And they really always miss it. It’s one of those things where, by not being practitioners, they just came up with something that made sense to them.
Acting is the easiest money you’ll ever make in your life, and directing is probably the hardest money.
And I taught acting for years, and without knowing it that was the real thing that started bending me toward directing.
There’s a lot of directing within the stunt coordinator’s job.
British people might wonder ‘What the hell is Kenneth Branagh doing directing ‘Thor?’ but the person asking that the most was Kenneth Branagh. I think he was more surprised than anyone else to find himself doing this kind of film.
Directing is so dope to me, man, ’cause it doesn’t necessarily have to be your material. You’re making someone else’s material come to life. There’s something amazing about that.
I found in making and directing films that the less you have voiceover, the better it is.
Hugh Wilson made it so real and he took us and it was almost when he was directing it, the way he would do it was funnier than the way we did it. And I just developed a regard for him that was unbelievable.
There would be no Marvel without ‘Swingers’; there would be no Jon Favreau directing ‘Iron Man,’ no Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man; no ‘Avengers.’
I had a certain career as an actor that I think was quite personal as well, and had a lot of integrity, but I wasn’t writing my own things or directing my own movies.
I think once we started directing separately – we each have different kinds of interests now, and the kinds of movies we want to do. I wouldn’t hold your breath for that one.
Once you’re directing, you’re kind of in a certain mode, where you’re taking whatever is on the page and forming it into the film that you think it might want to be. So whether it’s my writing or not, I still try to work with it in the same way.
I have this dream of directing. But as a child, I wanted to become a wrestler. Like, in childhood, we used to watch WWF; I was inspired by all of that. One of my favourite wrestlers was Rock, who has become an actor.
The good thing about directing a screenplay that you’ve written is that you see the film in your head as you’re writing it and then you see those decisions through to the end.
I took all my TV experience and what I learned about – by writing and directing and bringing a movie to Sundance – about the realities of the independent film market: ‘Transparent’ is the marriage of those two situations.
It took 17 years to get ‘Rambling Rose’ made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it.
When I’m directing, I noticed I’m not using my subconscious at all. I’m literally using the whole front part of my brain all the time. When you walk on the set, every moment you have to be there because something’s going on that requires attention.
Directing is all tied up with childhood loneliness. It’s such an odd thing to end up doing.
I always say, ‘I love producing, but directing is my passion,’ and for a while, I had to produce to support my directing habit.
Acting is always the priority and I love doing what I do, but I’m also very interested in directing and writing and getting a hand in every part of the movie making process.
As far as I know, there is only one other director who was a stuntman – guy named Chuck Bail who directed ‘Gumball Rally.’ Doing stunts isn’t exactly a common path to directing.
I watch ‘Goodfellas,’ and suddenly it frees me up entirely; it reminds me of what great film directing is all about.
I wanted to express myself more fully through writing and directing. It just feels like a package deal. Anytime you create anything, you try to exert mastery over your world.
Directing a film requires a different set of skills. It is a difficult job, and I am happy being an actor.
I was the kid in the neighborhood that was directing everyone else. I was director from the time I was a child.
Oddly enough, I find it quite engaging to be working with a female when I’m directing. It’s kind of interesting.
I stand to learn more working as an actor with really talented people than I do by directing a feature.
Instead of trying to get work, focus on your network. People will play a huge part in directing your growth and investing in relationships is critical no matter what you want to do.
I’ve learned more about directing from five years of television than I could have in ten years of film.
It’s sort of one ongoing process where writing ends and directing starts.
I guess because I’m so young, I m not sure of what lies ahead for me. I’m more into going the route of producing and directing. I just made a little short film. I’m more excited about going the route of doing a Drew Barrymore or… what’s the one from ‘Star Wars?’
I would trade places with Michael Bay when he was directing ‘Transformers’ because I’d get to meet Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, and also see what it’s like to direct a huge action movie. That’d be awesome.
I had the experience last year of directing my first feature while I had a 1-year-old son and while I was also pregnant, so I am now well aware of the difficulties women who are rearing children face when they’re also trying to make headway in mainstream of film.
I love writing and directing because it’s great therapy. Every project I’ve done, there’s been a personal connection.
If you’re directing, it doesn’t really matter any more if it’s going straight to TV – what matters is whether you have the resources to make a story that moves you.
My hands are already full writing and directing, because that’s a full time job. Actually, that’s why I don’t produce as well, as there’s already enough producers.
I want to expand and conquer every platform, every medium as well as pursue entertainment beyond social media – acting, producing, and directing.
I do have weird habits when I’m directing, or even think as a director, like when I move a cup, I make sure to put it back in the exact right place.
The reason I wanted to start directing is that as an actor I felt I came into a job late. There’s a whole team of people who have been working on it for months before you start. You have this really intense period of filming and then you leave it, knowing that the director will work on it for another few months.
I wasn’t very good as a puppet. A lot of times in a movie, you need a really good puppeteer: you’re sort of a puppet, and you’re doing what you can. But I always, from the beginning, was kind of making up my own stuff from stand-up and sort of directing myself, so I wasn’t very good in movies where I didn’t have control.
