Of course I'm schooled in the old school method: taking what I think the director wants, then reworking it through my own brain and heart.
Writing for television is completely different from movie scriptwriting. A movie is all about the director's vision, but television is a writer's medium.
It's pretty clear to me that working as a director for hire agrees with me. I like it. The films that have come out of that, I personally like better than the ones that didn't.
'The Color Purple' is the kind of character piece that a director like Sidney Lumet could do brilliantly with one hand tied behind his back.
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.
With Alien, because we always use a different director, each one kind of stands on its own. So I guess it's possible for them to make another one, but we have no plans.
The only other things, and again these things are hearsay, is that he could be pretty rough on directors, because he knew exactly the way he wanted to play the part. And he did so.
'Killer Joe' provides a lot of red meat for the theater. Pam MacKinnon is the perfect director to shepherd a group of actors who share a certain bloodlust.
Directors tend to be more underrated than overrated because it's a quiet job and people don't really understand it.
With comedy especially, it feels like such a clear-cut thing to be a writer-director. There is so much nuance and tone in a comedy that it's hard to contextualise it in a script.
You don't often get a proposal to do Tolstoy for a really interesting director - that's easy to say yes to.
Schepisi is the sort of director who could, would, and frequently did phone me whenever he came across a textual problem.
When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.
Many times, when a director reads a script and wants somebody who says 'Far out', then they let me do what I want with it and that's usually more interesting for an actor.
We all steal, but if we're smart we steal from great directors. Then, we can call it influence.
When I was younger, I used to write to directors when I was unsure I could play a role. I'd say: 'You've made a terrible mistake.'
I used to be under the impression that if a role wasn't difficult, then there was nothing happening. Then a director said to me: 'Ken, you've got to realise, acting can be fun, too.'
It's nice, because after you've worked with various directors and producers enough times, they start to know your voice and what you're capable of.
I guess maybe directors see a face that seems to have been lived in. I know that my face has been lived in, yeah.
What goes on between a father and a son, which is usually such a private matter, is that they are able to be honest with each other, and be honest with me, as a director. It's just remarkable.
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