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.
