I’m definitely one of those actresses who comes to a set knowing how I want to do a scene, and I definitely love input from my directors and my writers. I know that there’s some actors who like to be left alone, they like to be very independent, but I actually really enjoy the teamwork.
The movies ‘Dope’ and ‘Straight Outta Compton’ blew me away. I love seeing directors and writers of color make amazing slices of pop culture.
Here, we have female directors and producers; in fact, one whole channel is run by a woman. Pakistani TV is progressive, and hence, characters that are shown are of today as well.
I’ve read a hundred fantastic scripts that didn’t pan out as films, and I completely put that on the directors. I’ve also read some mediocre scripts that have ended up being amazing, and I credit that to the directors. They’re the storytellers. If you don’t have a good storyteller, you really have nothing.
Directors are not worried about casting beautiful women, but they are not sure that they want to cast great-looking men. My looks have prevented people from seeing my work.
I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I’m quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles.
I like to think of myself as a fairly educated human being, but I’m a very uneducated actor when it comes to movies, directors, producers, actors for that matter.
Louis Malle is maybe one of my favorite directors, but I love Tarantino.
Some directors cast you because they trust you to do the performance – but then they forget to direct you.
There are things that directors know about me that people shouldn’t know. But everyone’s really different. I’ve worked with women who I’ve never wanted to tell anything about myself to, and I’ve worked with guys who have been pouring wells of emotion. So emotional availability is not a gender-specific thing.
I’m not one of these directors, so far, that wants to have a whole separate director’s cut of these things. So far they’ve turned out to be kind of the length that they wanted to be.
My advice to female directors is not to wait until you feel like your ideas have been pre-certified or until you think you’ve gotten some approval for them. Then it’s too late! Follow your gut. That’s hard to do, but the only way to be original.
We did Holy Grail, and I got my name up there as one of the directors. After that, I started moving more and more down the line I wanted to, which was making movies.
I’d love to see the rushes but it’s just not allowed because directors and also a lot of actors feel that if they see their work, and the director likes what they’re doing, the actor might try to correct their mistakes.
Nowadays, there are seven music directors in one film. I had never heard of such a thing before. If one of our old music directors was told to share a score with others, he would have left the assignment.
All I mean is, I’m not the kind of audience comedy directors want at a test screening because I seldom laugh, and if I do, it’s not very loud. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the movie.
I like directors who come on the set and create something that’s a little dangerous, difficult or unusual.
I don’t believe that directors need to essentially manipulate actors into doing things. You can suffer for your art, and you can make your own self suffer for your art. You don’t need anyone else to do it for you. I work best when there’s a safety trampoline of kindness.
In the old days, before there was such a thing as film schools, directors learned the camera by watching other directors, and learning from their own dailies, and listening to the cameraman, and seeing what would work. Some of those guys could cut their movies in their head.
I get to play a great character while working with great actors and great directors on a great show.
When you’re doing a medieval show like ‘Pillars,’ it starts off a bit like a school play. You’re all in funny costumes; you’ve had your coffee, and you say, ‘Good morning’. Then you go on set and, if you’ve got good actors and directors, it takes on a life of its own.
I love working with directors who have good taste. It’s incredible when a director can say something and things open up for you. I went to The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and some of my best experiences on sets have been working with other alums.
Well into the ’40s, it wasn’t uncommon for big-budget Hollywood movies to contain little or no underscoring, and many of today’s directors, following the lead of Martin Scorsese in ‘GoodFellas,’ accompany their films with pop records, not original music.
I always believe that Kar-Wai has a complete script: he just doesn’t show it to us. He wants us to experience and explore the character. He gives you a lot of space, and you know every time will be a very long journey. You just live in the character, and that’s very different from other directors.
In my first film, we always tried to have a script and work in a normal way, but I was constantly changing things during shooting. Because I worked as a scriptwriter for 10 years, I understood that directors always wanted to change what was originally written, to improve on it.
I feel totally lucky and happy. I think a lot of young directors feel this way but you sort of, like, have a biological clock that starts ticking and you like feel like you aren’t anything until you direct a movie and you need to find yourself and this is how you do it.
Arnold and Jamie Lee must have worked over the years with directors that did 50 takes, because I’d get like three takes or so and say, Ok, that’s it, we’re done.
A lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they’re supposed to be leaders in the world, they’re followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.
I love film. I’ve always been enchanted by doing film. It’s something I grew up watching – classics and directors I admire – so that’s something I’ve always been passionate about.
Directors only have instinct to work out of, because there is no formula. Formulas don’t work. Actually, if you follow a formula, you will probably end up with a bad movie.
We often come across certain directors who mention some of their own flops as their favourites. They will blame the viewers for not realising its merits. I think that is plain hypocrisy.
If directors, actors and writers have the ability to drop their alpha-male egos, you will always get better work. In terms of my own demands, I actually want fewer lines. If I can lose a line and do it with my face, I’d rather do that.
Have you noticed how most directors are either bald or grey-haired?
Really top-notch directors, I’ve often worked with them just to see how they work.
Everything is entertainment; criticism is now entertainment and it seems that the French directors have woken up one day and suddenly realised that they were not backed up any more.
I have so much respect for television actors and directors. We’re on set doing 16-hour days, and that’s just what we do.
It’s an embarrassment of riches because you have directors who don’t better. You end up with so much stuff going on the screen that you don’t know where to look, and that’s what I consider self-indulgent.
As an actor, you’re in the hands of producers and directors. It’s important to find out who you’re working with.
I never had any classes or went to theatre school like a lot of actors, so all of my training has been on stage with different directors. That was a pretty good school room.
I did this thing for HBO called ‘Strip Search’ with Sidney Lumet, who was one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with. We actually had a rehearsal period before we shot, which is unusual.
I am lucky, that is all. Lucky because there are a lot of people – producers, directors, people who buy tickets – who put confidence in me.
I’m only wanted by directors for the image I give off, and it makes me angry. I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.
I fall in love with every film while I’m doing it. I fall in love with the directors, I fall in love with the process. I don’t think I could do it otherwise.
A lot of these roles that I feel like I’ve had some sort of impact, or that have had an effect on me, have always been with directors who have the time to somehow get to know me. Any good director’s going to be curious about who it is that’s coming aboard.
In the acting game, you spend a long time fighting against what the director perceives you to be. And half the time the directors don’t know.
I feel respect is in your hands as an actor when portraying a character, particularly when it’s from the Indian subcontinent. I do make a conscious effort to do so and often talk to the directors especially about the heavy accent when it’s not needed.
Guys never looked at me. I always had crushes on older seniors who never looked at me. So, when I tell directors that I wanna play that girl who gets rejected, they’re like, ‘Why?’ I tell them it’s because I relate to that girl much more than being the girl who makes jaws drop when she walks into a room.
As a female, you are often being asked by directors to be warmer, softer, flirt more, smile more etc… None of those things are bad, and obviously we are capable of a variety of human behavior, but it gets really old having to play into somebody’s stereotype or ideal.
