I knew her work very well and I knew that if she offered me a role in her movie, it wouldn’t be something stupid. So I agreed to do the film before I read the script.
I was in an acting class taught by Eric Morris, and Jack Nicholson was in the class. He wrote the script for ‘Head’, so all of us in the class got little tiny parts in the movie.
I got it into my head that I was going to be starring in movies that I wrote, so that’s what I did. I stopped acting in all things, and I wrote my first script, which was optioned a week after I finished it.
If it’s a modern-day story dealing with certain ethnic groups, I think I could open up certain scenes for improvisation, while staying within the structure of the script.
When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don’t have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies.
Sometimes we’ll only get one script in a year that we want to make that we feel is good enough.
When you’re tied to one show, you are very much at the mercy of the writers, so you can suddenly get a script where you have a heart attack and die.
I started writing this feature comedy in New York – a Chris Farley vehicle. The script was decent. When I got to LA, I met some new friends in film school and had them read my script and give me notes.
Modern American war is as easy to script as a B movie.
I would be sad if it ended now. It’s been the best job I’ve had by a long shot, especially creatively because the writing is so good. Every week I get the script and I laugh out loud and get excited for the different stuff we get to do.
As a rule it usually takes three or four readings for me to be interested in a script, and if I’m interested I’ll read it three or four times before I make a strong decision.
If I read a script and find it engaging and I start making choices in my mind on how to approach the work, than that’s a good indication that it is something worth pursuing.
If I feel like it’s a well-written script and if it speaks to me, it’s something I want to do. I usually rely on my instincts when it comes to a script.
A solid theatrical education can only improve a screen performance. It gives you a fuller capacity to read a script and understand a character, for one thing. It’s important to alternate between the two activities.
I wouldn’t say I’m a very controlling person. For instance, when I talk to the actors, I don’t tell them exactly what I want because I want them to surprise me. I even encourage them to change some of the verses of the script if they need to.
