Stephen Frears Quotes

#1. I've always found poverty a source of strength.

Stephen Frears

#2. I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right.

Stephen Frears

#3. I want my films to get audiences. I am not interested in making them just for myself.

Stephen Frears

#4. I teach film directing, inasmuch as you can. It's not really possible to teach film direction, but I sit there as a sort of testimony of experience and know-how, I suppose.

Stephen Frears

#5. I have people around me. I have a semi-permanent crew. If I make a film, they just turn up. They don't even invite themselves. They don't ask if they can come - they just turn up!

Stephen Frears

#6. I remember reading the script for 'Dangerous Liaisons' and thinking that I could quite happily spend the rest of my life watching this film; the story and the writing were so wonderful.

Stephen Frears

#7. Audiences aren't fools - their judgement really is important. And the true heroes of films are the investors. They take the risk, after all.

Stephen Frears

#8. When I go and teach, it sort of opens me up in some way. And when you're open, you're more receptive.

Stephen Frears

#9. There's the physical life and the voice, but at some point you abandon all of that, you know what the spirit of the person is and you let it descend and just get on with it.

Stephen Frears

#10. To be successful at anything, you need the right to fail, not just occasionally.

Stephen Frears

#11. It never crossed my mind to make a film about Muhammad Ali or the Queen or any of them! They just come out of the blue.

Stephen Frears

#12. I like making films about different cultures. I'm interested in things that I've never encountered before. I try to put myself in the audience's position.

Stephen Frears

#13. As a director, my job is to protect. I protect scripts, actors, cameramen, designers.

Stephen Frears

#14. I'm Jewish; I'm not religious at all, and I wouldn't pretend to know anything about Catholic politics.

Stephen Frears

#15. Truth is quite constricting, in a way. You endlessly see at the start of a film 'This is a true story'.

Stephen Frears

#16. The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.

Stephen Frears

#17. I never thought I was very good at developing material. I grew up at the BBC where they sent you scripts.

Stephen Frears