My dad and I used to shoot little one-stop animations on an old 8mm film camera when I was no more than 7 or 8, and when he was away at work, I would keep shooting nonsensical, short animated films using ‘Star Wars’ figures or Smurfs – depended what the narrative was.
You realize that as much as you want to socialize with the people on the set, or you want to, after a day shooting, joke around or whatever. Somehow, with playing Jesus, this doesn’t happen. You actually need to decompress and be on your own and prepare on your own. It never happened to me before.
In between shooting for ‘Awake,’ I was attempting to have my own pilot season. The audition for ‘Anger Management’ actually came during a week that I was already testing for a couple other shows and we weren’t really letting any other shows into the mix.
I recently had a few days off while shooting a movie in Budapest, so I took a cab from the set to the airport, looked at the departure board, and decided where I wanted to go right then and there. I spent four days in Rome and didn’t tell anyone I was going.
Shooting of course has certain challenges, especially in terms of safety aspects to be sorted and venues are far away from the scene of action.
Nobody could dissapear to their trailer once it was up and running, you were all there on the same stage. It was 10 days of rehearsal and 10 days of shooting, which was very tiring.
I’ll be honest, I like shooting ‘New Girl.’ I like the people. The show is still new to me. I’ve never done TV like this before.
Sometimes when you’re heavy into the shooting or editing of a picture, you get to the point where you don’t know if you could ever do it again.
In order to make Alma innocent and open, I had to forget that I’m stressed as an actress because I’m making a film with Paul Thomas Anderson. I had to let go of everything and hold onto the text. The language was like a rope I could cling onto and make my way blindfolded through the shooting.
If you wait until the right time to have a child you’ll die childless, and I think film making is very much the same thing. You just have to take the plunge and just start shooting something even if it’s bad.
Think of me as the weathered sheriff coming back into Dodge ’cause the youngsters are shooting up the church and scaring the horses and not doing right by the women.
When I’m shooting, really the audience I’m thinking the hardest about is that first test screening audience who I want to like the film and that first opening weekend audience.
‘Punda’ marks my entry into Kannada and ‘Krishnaleelai’ will be my Tamil debut. It was a good experience shooting for both the films.
Of course there’s pressure, and it’s still there with every book. Each one is harder to write than the last, basically because you’re always trying to write a better book. You won’t always succeed, of course, but that has to be what you’re shooting for.
I was shooting for a Telugu film at the Taj Mahal in Agra, and there were all these women and children pointing and screaming, ‘Rowdy Rathore.’ But I am not really ‘Rowdy Rathore.’ I am the guy who did the original version of ‘Rowdy Rathore’ six years ago.
When I am shooting a film, and it has a big schedule, I make sure that I take a week off with the family. It gives you new energy.
When I work, obviously the material is the first and most important thing. Then the director and who I’ll be working with. And then the location comes into it. Where is it shooting? Because I have a family that has to uproot to do that with me.
There were no bizarre action sequences so to say but I broke my foot while shooting. It is a superstition where they say if an actor breaks a foot or injures himself during the shoot then the film goes on to become a hit. So let’s just say this time I take the credit for the success of ‘Dhoom 3’.
Most people have already seen a cosmic collision. If you’ve seen a shooting star ever, you’ve seen a cosmic collision, because a shooting star is not a star. It’s a tiny dust or pea sized fragment of an asteroid or a comet hitting our atmosphere and burning up as it hits in, as it comes in.
Music is a big thing for me when I’m shooting. It gets me in a groove.
Oftentimes, the only evidence left behind at the scene of a shooting are bullet shell casings.
When we’re shooting, I’m in producer mode.
When I was running Atari, violence against humanoid figures was not allowed. We’d let you shoot at a tank… but we drew the line at shooting at people, with blood splattering everywhere.
The Marvel experience was particularly wrenching because I was sort of given absolute freedom while we were shooting, and then in post, it turned into a different movie.
Atmosphere on the sets of ‘YHM’ is absolutely brilliant. It’s kind of picnic always, and we have a gala time shooting together.
London is completely unpredictable when it comes to weather. You’ll start a scene, and it’s a beautiful morning. You get there at 6 in the morning, set up, you start the scene, start shooting. Three hours later, it is pitch black and rainy.
I always prefer shooting on locations, because when I’m at home, it’s harder to sort of get lost in the world of whatever you’re making. It does, it does force this bond and community amongst a group.
I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things new.
I’m not anti-fox hunting because, to me, shooting foxes is even worse and the results are horrendous.
Once, while shooting in Pune, I decided to experiment and ordered an item named Shepherd’s Pie. I thoroughly relished it, only to be later informed that what I had was beef. I couldn’t sleep that night! My only consolation was that the cow was English, not Indian!
Performing in front of the camera is a different thing, and shooting a whole film is another.
We’re shooting for the title of hardest-working band in America.
When I’m shooting a movie, I’m always in an invisible theater seat. I respect the fact that people have worked hard all week and want to go to the movies on the weekend and be entertained.
I wake up every morning bolt upright, whether it’s a commercial, not that that’s a good thing or a bad thing, because I shoot commercials in between movies. But whether it’s a commercial or a movie where I’m shooting a major train wreck, the thing that worries me most is when I’m doing a performance thing.
Lighting practically whenever I can when shooting period really helps with authenticity.
In ‘Haraamkhor,’ I have explored a few things which I wouldn’t have been able to do in bigger films. The process of shooting this film was so organic that it enhanced me as an actor and an artiste.
As kids, we have all handled shot guns. From there on, there is no transition. It stays in the toy box. The idea is to get the transition and bridge the gap between the toy box and the shooting range.
From 2005 to 2010, I was exclusively shooting ‘The Act of Killing’ and then editing it.
The only guy that was ever affected by climactic conditions in his acting was Kirk Douglas. He did a superb job in ‘Lonely Are the Brave’ because we were shooting that picture up at about 12,000 feet, and the rarefied atmosphere sapped him of any energy or strength that he had. That was his best performance.
When you were a stock player, you worked on anything that was shooting on the lot in any capacity.
I originally wanted to go into sports, but my first concert was KISS at the shooting of ‘KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park.’ The minute I saw Gene and Paul… it was all over. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
The live performance aspect of shooting a multicamera sitcom is wonderful. You have that instant audience reaction.
If you’re shooting to make the world 10% better, you’re in a smartness contest with everyone else in the world – and you’re going to lose. There are too many smart people in the world.
Matthew Wiener on ‘Mad Men’ writes the entire series before they start shooting, and if you have that, then what you can do with character and story is not at all unlike what you can do in a novel.
Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket. So, if I’m on set and I’m in character, I’m not thinking like a producer. If I’m on set and I’m not in character, wardrobe and make-up, and I’m just coming on set for the moments that I’m not shooting, then I’m able to be the producer.
I was shooting in the low 70s and 60s by the time I was 12. That’s the great thing about golf. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. If you’re 90 and can shoot a good score, people will want to play with you.
The whole business of being an actor is to explore, from research to shooting to why you do it. You’re trying to see why people do what they do and how it feels to do what they do.
Before I went to Liverpool, I was a striker and then sometimes a No. 8 or No. 10, and my thing was shooting, finishing, and long-distance shots.
I worked a lot on my ball-handling and outside shooting during the off season.
I was shooting the third season of ‘The Big C’ and doing ‘The Normal Heart’ at the same time on Broadway, and I thought, ‘I’ll never do anything as difficult as this.’
Working on a film is different from working in an office. You spend 16-hour days together; you share stories and become really close. But, when you finish shooting, you don’t see each other again.
