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.
