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.
Visit USA.gov and you'll find thousands of directorates, agencies, boards, offices, and services replete with overlapping responsibilities, ancient priorities, and divided accountability.
In choosing any role, I ask the same questions: what kind of part is it? is the role challenging? does the director have a vision? is the story moving? etc.
It's really hard as a screenwriter, you feel like you have a vision and then you turn it over to a director and you have to let it go.
I feel like this is the way I was meant to interact with acting. Which is as a director, and helping, working with actors to find their way. Facilitating their performances is so satisfying for me.
If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.
If you knew my wife, you'd be like, 'Yeah, you're very married.' She runs the household. I refer to her as 'the greatest director I've ever worked with.'
I randomly went to a casting session in my hometown in North Carolina, and the casting director introduced me to my manager. I really lucked into it!
But I don't think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I'm French or Australian or whatever, it's really not important.
If we really exist merely to fulfill God’s plan: then life is a television drama; with God being the scriptwriter, the director, and, the audience.
My career is based primarily upon finding a balance with a director and their vision, and that means sublimating my own personal ego toward their material.
