Quotes by Sam Mendes

About Sam Mendes:

Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes is an English stage and film director. He is best known for directing the comedy-drama film American Beauty (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the crime film Road to Perdition (2002), and the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and the upcoming Spectre (2015). He also is known for dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1996), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

For me, certain shots or scenes are keys in the movie.

Sam Mendes

Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

Sam Mendes

One movie is only one movie. I want to have a lifetime of making films.

Sam Mendes

The characters are trapped within the lifestyle. It's about what goes on before the movie starts.

Sam Mendes

If you lived through the shooting of Jaws, you can live through anything.

Sam Mendes

You think about taking audiences on a journey.

Sam Mendes

You freeze with the number of opportunities given to you and just decide to do nothing at all.

Sam Mendes

I like throwing snowballs at small children.

Sam Mendes

I think with Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense, people are much more open to something that is different.

Sam Mendes

As a first-time director in America, I feel I've been very fortunate.

Sam Mendes

I'm certainly getting a lot more mail... that's basically it.

Sam Mendes

Shooting action is very, very meticulous, it's increments, tiny little pieces.

Sam Mendes

All I know is that I operate by going out to each of them and trying to learn the territory in which they operate. My language to each of them has to suit their brain.

Sam Mendes

I deliberately, in a way, went for something that was a huge challenge and was a big period film. I was excited about the canvas on which I could tell the story as much as the story itself.

Sam Mendes

When I drive through a field, I want to see green grass sometimes, and I don't want to see black and white.

Sam Mendes

You're in the lap of the gods. If people go, they go, and if they don't.

Sam Mendes

Listen, you make a big movie, you're going into the Coliseum, and people are going to give you the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And that's part of the game. It's part of the fun as well.

Sam Mendes

I want to inspire, and be inspired.

Sam Mendes

I feel like the American years were my apprenticeship for doing a Bond movie.

Sam Mendes

This is the first time in 10 years I don't know what I'm doing next, and I'm rather enjoying it. Soon I'll be climbing the walls no doubt, but right now, it's not clear, I'm just enjoying the freedom.

Sam Mendes

Author Bio

  • NameSam Mendes
  • DescriptionEnglish stage and film director
  • AliasesSamuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes; Samuel Alexander Mendes
  • BornAugust 1, 1965
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionTheatre Director; Film Director
  • AwardsLaurence Olivier Award; Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; Academy Award For Best Director; Directors Guild Of America Award