I aspire to be able to appreciate and review a director based on their accomplishments and based on who they are and what they bring to the material, regardless of their gender.
It's a collaborative art form where we can both learn something from the other. That's what you want from the relationship with a director.
I would take a bad script and a good director any day against a good script and a bad director.
I feel fortunate. I've really gotten to work with amazing talented people, and to learn from them, which is why I'm doing this. If I can work with the best director I'm going to do it.
The nice thing about being a director is that I can say, "I can only get into the room after the kids are at school, and I have to be back for dinner. And they're coming for lunch. "
As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.
Usually in TV. . . A TV director could be anything from a main grip to just a glorified cameraman, and sometimes a director can be the person who is hired last. It's very much a producer's medium.
As a director, I have to feel realism from actors, and they can't be plastic.
A director is a man, therefore he has ideas; he is also an artist, therefore he has imagination. Whether they are good or bad, it seems to me that I have an abundance of stories to tell. And the things I see, the things that happen to me, continually renew the supply.
While a lab Director can get done the things that he regards as important, he has the more important job of bringing out the best ideas of the broader scientific community.
I've always laughed at the term "female director" or even "black director. " A director's a director.
The performance is created by the director. The actor is the material. And I think that has to be true.
I'm the most experienced cinematographer in this medium, so there's no point in having that extra conversation in the middle of the loop. You're making the film in relation to what's happening now, and you can't really affect what's happening now. It's not like you're in control of anything in front of the camera. If you're calling yourself the director and you're not the cinematographer, I think you're kidding yourself.
[Allied] got the attention of (director) Bob Zemeckis and Marion Cotillard. I'm glad I waited. If it had been made 15 years before, who knows how it would have looked, but it's got the best possible cast, director and everything. It's been fantastic. It was worth waiting.
When you work with someone you don't quite know, you have to figure the director out and you can come up with ideas that are counter-productive.
You do actor's job for intense scenes like this - you dream about them - and you get scared until the day it finally happens. But when you feel safe with your partners, the crew, and your director who all did a wonderful job, you get into the zone quickly.
As a director, I try not to implement a way for working, for every single actor, across the board. I try to work with each one, on an individual basis.
I'd love to direct a film, but I don't think I have the temperament for it. I'm very hyper, and I want things to be done ASAP. If I turn director, I might end up killing my actors.
I mean, it feels like a homecoming in a really wonderfully comfortable place to be - the same director, the same musical director, my same dressing room! [laughs] It's a great place to build something with freedom.
I always think it's a sign of a truly gifted director when they can move seamlessly between genres.