Actor And Director Quotes

#1. I think there has only been one time in my entire career that I've ever gone back to shoot a scene. And it was a scene that, when we were shooting it, we knew that it wasn't working. We knew there was a disagreement between the actor and director. So, we went back.

Melissa Leo

#2. I mean, I'm a writer, actor, AND director. Not to rock the boat or anything, but compare that to a carpenter and, in the end, who is the better man?

Zach Braff

#3. Use people whom you're excited by and who share your excitement ... The ideal collaboration is one in which the actor and director are saying to each other, 'I can't believe how lucky we are to be making a movie together.'

James Toback

#4. We had a great dramatic society in school, and that's where I first got exposure both as an actor and director.

Randeep Hooda

#5. In 1913, the noted German actor and director Paul Wegener was making a film in Prague when he heard the legend of Rabbi Loew, who created a golem to protect the inhabitants of the Prague ghetto from persecution.

Kage Baker

#6. The dance that happens, between actor and director, is a very delicate thing ... it's why people tend to work together on many films over and over.

Sydney Pollack

#7. As an actor and director, you have to take risks, even though I don't like saying that word. You can make a mistake.

Jean Dujardin

#8. I am a sensitive writer, actor and director. Talking business disgusts me. If you want to talk business, call my disgusting personal manager.

Sylvester Stallone

#9. Theater is very much the world I'd like to get back to, particularly in New York, both as an actor and director.

Jason Alexander

#10. What goes on between the actor and director is sacred.

Jack Kilmer

#11. You must become the producer, director and actor in the unfolding story of your life.

Wayne W. Dyer

#12. My strongest quality as an actor is taking direction. I will give my performance as a template and if the director gives any instruction, I take that information, process it and morph it into the next take. I love the feeling I get when nailing a scene through direction.

James Preston Rogers

#13. I'm not so in a rush to direct just anything because I'm lucky that I can make a living so far as an actor and not have to worry about that as a director. And so I can be a little more choosy in things I direct.

Steve Buscemi

#14. My film school is making movies. But, I do think that being an actor has served me immensely, as both a writer and director, in terms of knowing what is playable and what will be fun to play, for actors, and also how to communicate to actors on set, and not screw them up and get them in their head.

Josh Radnor

#15. I knew that I always wanted to be a filmmaker, an actor, a writer and a director, that was always my plan.

Jaime King

#16. If it's stage, the two most important artists are the actor and the playwright. If it's film, THE most important person is the director. The director says where the camera goes.

Brad Dourif

#17. I'm not interested in being a celebrity; I'm interested in being a better actor and a better director.

Denzel Washington

#18. As an actor, you're always at the service of somebody else's vision. In a play, it's more of the director's vision, and he or she's got their hands on you all the way up to opening night, and if it's a film, there are even more people.

Jeff Daniels

#19. As an actor, I'm attracted to drama; as a director, it's humor - because it's the story of my life, and I can't be that serious about it. Being alone is a big theme in all my movies, both as a director and as an actress.

Jodie Foster

#20. Work is fun to me. All those years of being an actor and a director and not being able to get a job - two weeks is too long to not know what my next job will be.

Dennis Hopper

#21. I don't move until an actor is happy, but it was very important to me as a so-called "first time director" to keep the machine moving. It was especially important to me to keep it moving and not be some kind of precious writer-director.

William Monahan

#22. I've been an actor for 10 years now, and if anything I want to talk more about my dad. He taught me that even if you get past the casting director's door you've still got to do your homework: you've still got to work hard.

Rafe Spall

#23. I had no idea what it took to be an actor. Then all of a sudden I found myself cast in a TV drama. The director was very harsh with me. One time, he told me this would be my first and last acting job. I seriously thought that acting was not the right career for me.

Lee Byung-hun

#24. So yeah, a good director will be able to listen and hear everything, but have a confident vision of his own that he can say, 'oh yeah - that's a great point.' And you never know; often you can help far more than you think you can, because there's so much more that he's juggling than an actor.

Christian Bale

#25. I've worked with some of the great cinematographers. So I'm always watching what they do and I'm watching how the director composes his shots, just because I find it interesting as an actor; you're trying to help them out as well.

Eric Bana

#26. Honestly, I look at the project and I look at the people attached and I look at the director. If it's a role that I feel will help me, as an actor, then I'll definitely take it.

Sasha Grey

#27. One of the most, in a weird way, encouraging things a director can say to an actor - I know this as an actor - is when you ask them a question, they say, I don't know - 'cause it means there's some space there for you to find out. And it means that there's going to be a process.

Alan Rickman

#28. For an actor, it's very important to get a clear idea of what a director wants, and their intention for what they want to get out of a scene and how they want to shoot it. Having that knowledge is really valuable, for an actor. It means you can deliver more.

Clive Owen

#29. As a director, I've been able to combine with what I've learned as an actor and as a producer: it melds quite nicely into what I feel like I should have been doing all along.

Griffin Dunne

#30. I don't want to infantilize the actor; I want to empower the actor. Actors can be many things, but all of the really good ones are really great storytellers, and I'm interested in that. If you're not interested in that as a director then you better be Stanley Kurbrick.

Paul Bettany

#31. On a lot of shows that I've done, we had the same directors, which was cool. But then, it's also great to do shows where the director changes every week, because you get to see all these different personalities and see what you like dealing with better, as an actor.

Laura Prepon

#32. I worked with Roger Moore on three episodes of 'The Saint.' He is a lovely man, a good director, and was my favourite actor to work with.

Shirley Eaton

#33. It takes a long while for a director to cease thinking in terms of the result he desires and instead concentrate on discovering the source of energy in the actor from which true impulses arise.

Peter Brook

#34. I thought I'd become a funeral director when I wasn't going to be an actor.. I thought I would be good at helping some people with the grieving process and with trying to get them to talk about and understand who this person was.

Angelina Jolie

#35. I always felt, and still feel, one of my best strengths as a director is having been an actor for a long time. Nobody knows actors and their insecurities and strengths and everything more than somebody who's done it before.

Paul Feig

#36. I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

Bill Condon

#37. I've worked on shows where the lead actor doesn't know their lines, doesn't care, and it affects everybody - the crew, the director, the other actors. It's definitely a responsibility.

Tatiana Maslany

#38. My favorite parts of work as an actor and a director are those unplanned mistakes that do happen, because it's like catching lightning in a bottle. It's the best part of what we do.

David Duchovny

#39. I'm not a director that's about precision and control and perfection, I'm about creating an atmosphere that's organic and interesting and then letting people loose, and for that there's no greater actor or performer than children. Animals are maybe a close runner-up.

David Gordon Green

#40. The director's job is to know what emotional statement he wants a character to convey in his scene or his line, and to exercise taste and judgment in helping the actor give his best possible performance.

Stanley Kubrick

#41. Josh Radnor is that rare thing: a writer-director who thinks like an actor but still knows how to create a comedy with shape and vision. Liberal Arts is the best movie about college I've seen since I don't know what ... Dryly affectionate and super-sharp. Elizabeth Olsen is every inch a star.

Owen Gleiberman

#42. Every actor you work with has a different method, same with the director. You have to figure out what your shared language is and how to best support each other, and also take care of yourself.

Kerry Washington

#43. It's a writer's or director's role to be cerebral, whereas for an actor it should be a visceral, gut thing. When the action starts, it's best to turn the brain off and let it become an instinctual thing.

Natalie Dormer

#44. I'd love to see the rushes but it's just not allowed because directors and also a lot of actors feel that if they see their work, and the director likes what they're doing, the actor might try to correct their mistakes.

Corey Haim

#45. It was difficult every ten days having a new director. I'm a real collaborator and, as an actor, I want to be directed. It's hard for me to shift gears.

Jeanne Tripplehorn

#46. It's always a good collaboration between the actor and the writer and the director to try stuff out, during the process.

Mark Consuelos

#47. I'm an actor who's accustomed to bringing a lot of stuff to the table, and you have to be ready because some of them will be accepted and some of them will be rejected. Then you need a generous, free, fearless, loving director like Tarantino to allow you to take those risks.

Demian Bichir

#48. I don't watch the movies I make, so I haven't seen 'Footloose' since it came out. You see this young, hungry actor, it's pretty fun. I was the only one they screen tested. It was an attempt by the director and producer to talk the head of the studio into hiring me because they didn't want me.

Kevin Bacon

#49. I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

Steve Buscemi

#50. As an actor, I look at scenes much differently than I would look at them as a director, and I never realized that until it actually happened.

Jensen Ackles

#51. You go to New York or L.A., and every waiter wants to be a writer, director or actor. But there's a common thread: everybody wants to do it because they love it.

Gillian Alexy

#52. I've learned over the years that the best way to develop as an artist is to make things. So I tell young artists it's not enough to be an actor anymore, you have to be a filmmaker/writer/director. There's no excuse for waiting around for a job. You have to be active and make things.

Liane Balaban

#53. I've learned from every director I've worked with. Everybody's style is very different, and I always say that being an actor is the best film school that I could ever go to.

Lake Bell

#54. You spend enough time on set as an actor and it's great when a director was at some point an actor or understands acting. They're able to finesse performances out of you that a lot directors can't get.

Ian Somerhalder

#55. I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.

Chadwick Boseman

#56. I'm a little less hungry as an actor than I used to be. When you're a director, you're the conductor of the orchestra, and when you're an actor, you're playing the violin. There's a thrill to each of them, but as the conductor, you get the fuller sound.

Josh Radnor

#57. I wanted to be in film. I wanted to be a film student, possibly be a director or cinematographer, not an actor. That was my goal. I didn't believe I had the physical beauty that I'd seen projected and advertised in movies, in theater. It just wasn't for me.

Pam Grier

#58. As an actor, you have to give up all control to the director. He's the boss, and has all the power. I'm a control freak, so that's really hard for me.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach

#59. I think that the process of trying to become somebody else, and obviously the director/actor relationship in trying to do that, is such a weird, undefinable thing.

Rupert Friend

#60. My dad always said there's four phases in an actor/director's life. There's 'Mario Who?' There's 'Get me Mario!' 'Get me a young Mario,' and 'Mario Who?'

Mario Van Peebles

#61. 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.

Katherine Helmond

#62. I recognize that every role I play, I'm not going to play someone that has a ministry or that is a Christian, and I don't think that's what God has called me to do. The gift and talent that He's given me as an actor, director, producer is to entertain, sometimes to inform, most times to inspire.

Kim Fields

#63. As far as an actor-director connection, I think those can develop, and when they do, they're really great, and you just cultivate it like you would any relationship or friendship. If you find that something special, it helps down the line when you want to do more projects with each other.

Taylor Handley

#64. Also a good director and good dialogue. That's very important because you're bringing the words to life. So it's very important for an actor to have good dialogue.

Julia Garner

#65. One of the things that's awesome about being an actor is that you get to do stories, live lives and have experiences that you never could have even conceived of, and that's because you're living in another writer's imagination and another director's imagination.

Brit Marling

#66. One tries to be an observer as an actor and indeed as a director because the small things, the give-away things are what are really interesting to a performer.

Janet Suzman

#67. As an actor, you want a director who makes you feel comfortable in a place that you can really create and try a lot of different things.

Ansel Elgort

#68. As a director and an actor, I encourage improvisation but in character and in the moment of what it is.

Billy Crystal

#69. A director could be 20 years old and an actor 60, or vice versa; it doesn't matter. It's about connecting sensibility and energy together, and having a vision that goes together and anchors the film as you go along.

Juliette Binoche

#70. Having a director who is also an actor makes for that very relaxed way of working and it's empowering.

Chris Hemsworth

#71. Women are just more oriented toward feelings - and I don't mean that in a negative way. But with a male actor and a male director, the emotional exploration can only go so far. With a female director, you can end up exploring so many more depths.

Nick Nolte

#72. You risk working with this director, you risk making this movie, you risk working with another actor you don't know. It makes your heart beat faster. And it keeps you interested.

Kevin Spacey

#73. I like it when an actor is secure enough to ask questions, and the director is secure enough not to be threatened by that.

Paul Haggis

#74. You don't have to like an actor to do a scene with him. You don't have to like a director. But it's just better if you do. And I think, you know, you've got to begin that with respect.

Russell Crowe

#75. The worst thing you can do as a comedy director is be on set and think of something ridiculous, or an actor comes up to you with something ridiculous, and you say 'No, no that's too much.' Let's not worry if that's too much, let's shoot it, and then decide if that's too much when we see it.

Todd Phillips

#76. Sometimes I think being an actor is like being a dog for a director; it's like they throw a stick, and you want to fetch it and bring it back to them. You want a pat on the head for it.

Joel Edgerton

#77. Matching character and actor is what a good director does.

Bruno Dumont

#78. I was an actor as a kid in Boston. Then I went to art school with Brice Marden, the Massachusetts College of Art. So the hybrid of being an actor and artist is a director.

Arne Glimcher

#79. I am aware that as an actor, I can blame others for the failure of a film, the director, the script, choice of co-stars, timing of the release and so on. But now, as the director, I will have to shoulder all the blame.

Anupam Kher

#80. You can be playing a line some way and the director wants you to change that, or you can disagree. But I always think that the creative conversation between director and actor is what leads to good work.

Ewan McGregor

#81. Whether it's t-shirt and jeans or full monster suit, I'm still an actor underneath it all, and a good director is going to know that.

Doug Jones

#82. For me, I had to overcome shyness to be an actor. But as a director, you lose your subjectivity, your self-consciousness. And instead of just your role, it's the life of the whole play that becomes a reflection of you.

Gene Saks

#83. You see these actor/director relationships in the celebrity world and you understand why. The director knows which buttons to push and it makes it so much more familiarized.

Michelle Glick

#84. To make good films, you have to have a good relationship and good collaboration as composer-director, composer-editor, composer-production designer-actor because you're working with the actors on screen.

Howard Shore

#85. In a rehearsal room, your real resource as an actor aren't the things around you; your resources are your imagination and your director and the other actors. In those close quarters, your imagination and your skills are what you turn to.

Stephen Lang

#86. As an actor and a fledgling director, I'm used to making snap decisions that I'll have to live with.

Rob Lowe

#87. I am not a master-class director. I am not a teacher. I am a coach. I dont have a methodology. Each actor is different. And on the film set, you have to be next to them all.

Sam Mendes

#88. Part of an actor's job, in my opinion, is adjust to the characteristics of the director and try to understand to how he tries to work.

David Zayas

#89. In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

Anne-Marie Duff

#90. An actor puts himself in the hands of a director. And the director's first responsibility, obviously, is to tell the story, but the smallest thing that's not true reads on the screen. So if a director sees that an actor is not believable, he needs to help him become believable.

Tobin Bell

#91. One casting director told me, 'You're the next Leonardo DiCaprio,' and when I heard that, I said, 'Let's talk about how I don't want anything to do with being like Leo.' He's an amazing actor, but the films we're pushing to do are different. I'm going my own way
in a big way.

Devon Sawa

#92. On stage I am the actor, director and the bouncer all at the same time. Fear does not exist in this dojo does it? No Sensi! Sorry when I get excited I have to toss in some Karate Kid quotes.

Dane Cook

#93. I've always found it strange that a director can hire any designer he wants from any country. But if he hires a foreign actor, it's like he's stolen the crown jewels and run across the river with them.

Kevin Spacey

#94. My dad was a theater actor, so I would follow him backstage. And my mom was a casting director. The moment I heard the applause and realized it would get me out of school, I was hooked.

Christian Slater

#95. I think my family's watched me over the years in my career, in my pursuit of my career, and they've seen the challenges and the struggles that come with being an actor, with being a writer and a director, and the challenges of morphing my career in from just being an actor into a writer/director.

Ricky Schroder

#96. As an actor, I'm always playing solitary characters. But as a director, I'm always making ensemble movies, which focus on lots of people's lives and how they intertwine.

Jodie Foster

#97. From my experience as an actor, choreographer, action director, and producer, I understand the elements and the dynamics of being a film maker.

Donnie Yen

#98. I think you have to have different tools for each job - you know producer is very different from a director and very different from an actor.

Renee O'Connor

#99. I'm not a famous director yet, and I'm not into fame. I like to just work. As a director, as an actor, whatever people consider me is fine with me.

Tommy Wiseau

#100. The Hollywood model is to develop scripts for 10 years, sell them, transfer them, attach this actor, then attach a director. This isn't what I'm about. I'm much more of a creator and a doer.

Mike Birbiglia