All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.
As an actor, director or writer you never want to be doing one thing. To show that diversity and be able to do more than one thing, and to play different characters, is part of the job that I'm supposed to do. Hopefully, I can continue doing that.
As a director who loves the camera you learn a lot.
I really do like working very closely with a director and developing characters.
The film director, in many instances, has to swallow somebody else's decision about the final form of something. It's so hard as to be intolerable.
There are directors that I want to work with and that I admire. You can love a script, but if it doesn't have a good director, it won't be that.
I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.
John Huston was the kind of director that totally left you alone. Not every actor always does it right, every time, but most of the time he was re-directing someone. He was making tight adjustments, and not even in terms of interpretation because he knew that by the time that the character had been filmed. . . well, he got it right when he cast you.
I generally don't involve myself in giving the actors some tips on acting. At the same time, I don't do that with the director.
I think that what kind of is making this different is the creative group of us that has come together and we're all kind of on the same page working towards the same goal. So it is a real collaborative effort of our hearts more than it is oh you have the writer, you have the director, the producer, whatever.
The producer can put something together, package it, oversee it, give input. I'm the kind of producer that likes to take a back seat and let the director run with it. If he needs me, I'm there for him. As a director, I like to have the producer there with me. As a producer, I don't want to be there because I happen to be a director first and foremost, I don't want to "that guy. "
My dad is a successful television producer, director and writer and my mom's a director and writer.
When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me.
I always loved movies, but I never thought I would presume to be a screenwriter and definitely not a director.
The director's very important to me, particularly when the director has a recognizable style.
As a director myself, you really appreciate collaborating with people who are trying to help you find what you need and what you want.
I have never watched property programmes. I watch Property Ladder, because I feel it's very rude for a director to work very hard on a programme and you can't be bothered to even watch it. So I do watch it, but I have to turn away when I'm on screen. It's quite unpleasant seeing myself up there.
But in the UK, I've given up any hope of being considered a director.
I still feel lucky whenever I hear a director say, "Action!" Because then I think, "Whoa, I'm really in the movies. This is a real thing happening. " I've never not been enthralled by that. I still love it. I still love hearing it, and I feel really lucky all the time.
Every time a director calls me and says, 'If you practice a lot in two months, can you be an American?' And I always tell them, 'Well, maybe but I'm French. So it's going to be hard to be someone else.