As a director you have to be careful you don't over-design the film. You have to be careful that the period aspect does not take over.
As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.
Because of 'The Birds' and 'Marnie' I was, as the expression goes, hot in Hollywood and producers and directors wanted to hire me.
I think directors can become overly infatuated by gilt and gold, and the word 'lavish' and everything being magnificent.
I've worked on shows where the lead actor doesn't know their lines, doesn't care, and it affects everybody - the crew, the director, the other actors. It's definitely a responsibility.
I think I have been stereotyped as an action director in Hollywood, so all I got were the action scripts.
It's very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.
Of all the projects I've worked on, I've never worked with another director like Billy Friedkin. I think he's a genius.
Everyone who made 'Save the Date,' like the writers and the director, they're all happily married and not anti-marriage at all, so that was kind of interesting to me.
I'm lucky enough that directors sometimes seek me out for little projects that people don't even know about, that just surface later on.
I keep meeting directors that are so irresistible. I only do irresistible films, because I don't need to act to feel myself alive.
My literal responsibility as director of the CIA with regard to covert action was to inform the Congress - not to seek their approval; to inform.
In general, we like to shoot Breaking Bad like a modern day Western, and Sergio Leone is one of my all-time favorite directors.
If you're a casting director, you're going to be curious to see what Timothy Spall's son is like. But when you get in the door, you have to have something to offer.
I'm a reader. I found out that, whether you're a studio head or a director, you must read your own material. You can't rely on readers.
But I would like to think that it's the actor that makes the difference in these cases. Not the director, not the guy that wrote the book, not the guy that adapted it for the screen, but the actor.
There are directors who, their direction is high, but then when you challenge it, it crumbles. They can't back up what they're asking.
Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor, a director.
As an actor, you have to give up all control to the director. He's the boss, and has all the power. I'm a control freak, so that's really hard for me.
I remember feeling that Michael was extremely sensitive when it came to that moment. Most directors are and they usually rely, at least in my experience, on the actress to take over. And Michael is a gentleman.
I hooked up with director Jacques Audiard for this film called 'Rust & Bone' with Marion Cotillard. I loved that experience so much I'm truly sad that it's over!
