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.
