Popular quotes about Directors! Wisdom and inspiration are here! | page 63
In terms of directors, great actors make directors - Gary Oldman was great to work with, for me; Tim Roth, too. You work with Scorsese and Spielberg and they were wonderful directors, but for me, working with actor/directors is special.
Ray WinstoneI don't have any problem working with first-time directors because all directors have to start somewhere and all great directors have had a first film. So, if you take the view that you don't want to work with a first-timer, you might miss out on a fantastic opportunity.
Dougray ScottI love being on sets with very seasoned directors as well as very new directors. Every time is a discovery process. You learn something new every time.
Mark WahlbergI would say that maybe directors who act as well are easier with actors. I'm not saying that all directors have this, but sometimes you'll come across a director who sort of looks at an actor a bit like a kind of untrained horse that's been let out of the stable, like they might buck him.
Rebecca HallFemale directors, directors of color are a big thing for me, which are both important voices and potent voices that need to be heard. That's how I want to engage myself as an actor going forward.
David OyelowoThere`s only one list that`s more illustrious than the list of directors who won the Palme d`Or. It`s the list of directors who didn`t.
Quentin TarantinoIt's not often I get to do a film that turns out good. Plus, there just aren't that many great directors out there. There are a thousand different decisions that need to be made with each script and it's the good directors that can make those decisions. It's a long and complicated process in regards to what looks good on paper. Working on a bad film can be fun too. It can be a good exercise that gets you writing.
Dean WarehamUnlike a lot of British directors, I hadn't done any theater. But, I had a great mentor who said, "What you're looking for is exactly the same thing you've done in your documentaries, which is moments of emotional truth.
Susanna WhiteA great director, first, is highly intelligent. And he is also a dedicated and willing to work hard. Now those are easy things to identify. The third is the creativity, and that is very difficult to identify in advance. This is why so many of the directors who have started with me were my assistant - the first one was Francis Ford Coppola.
Roger CormanI think great directors really respect their actors and vice versa. That mutual respect makes the job fun instead of anything but.
Lake BellA lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they're supposed to be leaders in the world, they're followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.
Talib KweliI read reviews of critics I respect and feel I can learn something from. Right now there are a lot of bottom-feeder critics who just have access to a computer and don't necessarily have an academic or cinema background that I can detect, so I tend to ignore that and stay with the same top-tier critics that I've come to respect. I like reading a good review - it doesn't have to be favorable, but a well-thought-out one - because I very much appreciate the relationship of directors and critics.
Alexander PayneNow that I'm taking some time off from school, I've been reading a lot to make sure I don't forget everything. It's mostly classics and nonfiction accounts from actors, directors and writers from the '40s and '50s
Fred SavageWith the most interesting directors, the cast comes together to make something magical that nobody counted on.
Susan SarandonEvery day is still exciting. I have like a very good system worked out with my editor. Some directors are in there every day, sitting there in the room with the editor. I lose perspective incredibly quickly, and so what I do is I watch...I come in the room and give very specific notes and then I go back to my house or in my office and I watch the dailies.
Nicholas StollerThere's nothing worse than a director that keeps changing their mind. Because, unlike the directors I work with, I'm not decisive at all.
Cliff MartinezAs an actor, I have casting issues. I'm a minority. I don't have trouble making a living, but as far as being on the food chain of the pecking order of actors, I'm not at the top of it. With the jobs that I do, there are always control issues with directors and producers.
B. D. WongI have always firmly believed that every director should be judged solely by their work, and not by their work based on their gender. Hollywood is supposedly a community of forward thinking and progressive people yet this horrific situation for women directors persists. Gender discrimination stigmatizes our entire industry. Change is essential. Gender neutral hiring is essential.
Kathryn BigelowI think stupidity in business is really an interesting thing. What winds up happening is a disconnect between your company's strategic management and then your more applied on-the-street management. I guarantee with you that the board of directors of most companies has no idea what the costs of hiring people really is in the HR department.
Nick CorcodilosI think the press is doing a wonderful job of putting the pressure on the decision-makers in Hollywood to support more female directors.
Natalie PortmanI feel very, very grateful. I'm a lucky guy, you need a lot of luck, and then when the cameras roll, you have to have this group of writers, directors, and actors that just gel, and it seems to literally be happening more and more.
Brad GarrettIn the eighties, I was fortunate to be one of the young art directors that Jerry Roach, creative director at JWT New York, took under his wing. He taught me how to use typography more visually, to push against design norms and not to rely on preconceived notions of what something should look like. I learned that nuance is everything and to agonize over the details. I have Jerry to thank for driving plenty of people crazy over the years!
John ButlerThat excites me, working with really excellent people, be it wonderful directors or actors or cinematographers and especially writers. My work life is going to a set and having these great experiences and coming home shifted by them.
Deborah Kara UngerHaving been a child actor, I remember how directors would trick me to get good performances out of me. I don't think you need to do that.
Asia ArgentoNollywood is a genre, and not the entire Nigerian film industry. However none of the 'New wave' of directors in Nigeria would know what was possible without the Nollywood model, so I'm grateful to them for showing us that our stories are of interest to people other than Nigerians. I would describe myself as a filmmaker, period.
Chika AnaduChildren of Men is a solemn, haunting picture, but it's also a thrilling one, partly because of the sheer bravado with which it's made. It left me feeling more fortified than drained. [Director Alfonso] Cuarรณn, the most openhearted of directors, prefers to give rather than take away.
Stephanie ZacharekWe, as women, often believe that we have to endear ourselves by acting modestly. But that leads personnel directors to think: Anyone who gives themselves away so cheaply cannot be very good. On that point, women need to get much, much more self-confident and tough.
Kristina SchroderThe greatest directors are the greatest users. They use people's talents to tell the story that they want to tell.
Janusz KaminskiI've worked with a lot great directors who have huge resumes, but I'm really trying to be active in my career in supporting the new generation of cinema. I like taking some time to try to support and be a part of that.
Michael PittBy the time May rolls around, I'm probably going to want to spend a month on an island. But if Steven Spielberg or Steven Soderbergh or any number of directors were to say 'Hey, there's this role, are you interested?' I'd be there in a flash
Marg HelgenbergerYou hear stories about directors using manipulation to get actors to do certain things, but I think when you're working with professional actors, it's all about trust. They can do anything you want, it's just a matter of them understanding what you're looking for, and the reason why.
Darren AronofskyGreat directors can understand the staging in such a way that can make a scene come alive. Others have a certain way of pacing the scene.
Al PacinoDirectors are always changing things at the last minute. Actors will do a scene, and the director will say, โOkay, that was perfect, but this time, Bob, instead of saying โWhatโs for dinner?โ you say, โWait a minute! Benzene is actually a hydrocarbon!โ And say it with a Norwegian accent. Also, we think maybe your character should have no arms.
Dave BarryThe most nurturing of directors can make you feel too comfortable, and you don't really push for that extra whatever.
Malcolm McDowellIf you work in casting, it's sort of not cool to want to act. A lot of people think that casting directors are frustrated actors, but it wasn't true with any of the casting people I knew.
Catherine KeenerI'm thinking about directing, but I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate what directors do and I would like to be good at it. The opportunity has presented itself four to five times, and I usually said no because of the script.
Angela BassettYeah, I mean the material, directors, the other cast, and if you think you can do something with the character then you do it and go from there. I am looking forward to doing some smaller movies.
Orlando BloomThe idea that all violence in movies is okay simply because it happens is bull. Directors and writers have a responsibility.
Julie TaymorThere's not a lot of talking between actors - either between actors or between actors and directors. People think that they sit in rooms and talk about psychology and motivations. I don't think that happens much.
Christopher Walken...Directors of a large food-manufacturing firm (:)...At one extreme (: one) said it was not his job to protect people from themselves; he was not forcing people to eat his products, and if they chose to do so at the risk of harming themselves, it was of their own free choice.
John YudkinThe biggest thing I've noticed with some of my favorite directors is their gift of sticking a bunch of strangers in a room together and making them comfortable and making them into a cohesive group. There's magic involved, because you don't know why anybody would pick this group of people.
Alison PillBlockbusters run the mainstream industry. We may never again have a decade like the 1970s, when directors were able to find such freedom.
Roger EbertDirectors who have inspired me include Billy Wilder, Federico Fellini, lngmar Bergman, John Ford, Orson Welles, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola and Ernst Lubitsch. In art school, I studied painters like Edward Hopper, who used urban motifs, Franz Kafka is my favorite novelist. My approach to film stems from my art background, as I go beyond the story to the sub-conscious mood created by sound and images.
David Lynch