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.
