It is universally agreed that Jean Renoir was one of the greatest of all directors, and he was also one of the warmest and most entertaining.
When I was very young I wanted to be a professional horseback rider. Then I wanted to be a pop singer. Then I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Then I wanted to be a movie director.
I'm such a fan of Daniel Waters, who wrote the script, and also Mark Waters, his brother, who directed. 'Vampire Academy' has, I think, an iconic director.
I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.
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.
My first soldier role was in 'Flags of Our Fathers.' Casting director Jay Binder saw that movie and was looking for soldiers for 'Journey's End,' which led to 'Generation Kill.'
'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.
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.
