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Film School: Directing Actors

Directing Actors 101 | H8URS Directing Actors 101 | H8URS

A roundup of videos about ways, good and bad, that directors of major features work with their performers.

A Quick Overview

The Discarded Image uncovers a wide range of approaches among big names, from Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher to Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, from collaborative and nurturing to authoritarian and abusive:

Give Space and Attention

Quentin Tarantino‘s advice to directors on first allowing actors to deliver what they’ve prepared:

Director and actor Bryce Dallas Howard reveals to Katie Sackhoff which takes are most often used, and why:

Be Minimal and Economical

Gary Oldman reveals the value in Christopher Nolan‘s understated direction of actors (via Josh Horowitz):

Behaviour Over Time

When Robin Wright went from acting in to directing House of Cards (2013-2018), she sought advice from series creator David Fincher, who had been directing her in the series, and shares his cryptic description of the process (via Variety):

Avoid “Killing It With Improvements”

Having come up as an actor himself, actors describe Clint Eastwood‘s unusual, understated approach to directing (via The Graham Norton Show):

More Preparation, Fewer Takes

Speaking of Clint Eastwood: fellow actor/director Tim Robbins describes how Eastwood gives his performers just one take. This encourages actors to turn up to set better prepared – and has otherpositive impacts on the work, and on work/life balance (via Josh Horowitz):

Rhea Seehorn describes her preparation process, so that even without dialogue, she can tell story through her performance (via Apple):

Create Conditions for Discovery

“You make a mark on the canvas,” describes Mike Leigh, “it tells you where to go next.” The acclaimed director of largely improvised, cinema verité-style films including Naked (1993), Mr. Turner (2014), and Secrets & Lies (1996), likens his process of discovery with his actors to that of painters, sculptors, and musicians:

Maggie Cheung on Wong Kar-wai‘s directing style while filming In The Mood For Love (2000) (via TIFF):

More on how Mike Leigh, and other directors such as John Cassavetes, Ken Loach, Derek Cianfrance, Joanna Hogg, and Shane Meadows, utilise improvisation as part of their disciplined processes. Intensive preparation, tightly written scripts, or compartmentalisation of information – and occasionally with arguably less than ethical practices (via StudioBinder):

Eyelines

Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman share the secret of technical eye acting (via The Graham Norton Show and All The Right Movies):

Method Acting

There’s enough to this topic for an entire post of its own. In short: Method Acting usually refers to the Stanislavski Method, which involves “the use of one’s own life experiences” in an actor’s performance. It was popularised in Hollywood in the 1950s by actors such as Marlon Brando and James Dean, and it’s as divisive as it is misunderstood. According to actor and director Kristen Stewart, ‘The Method’ is also gendered, and an assertion of power (clipped from the full interview with The New York Times):

Creative Problem-Solving and Working Within Restrictions

This full-length Directors Guild of America (DGA) discussion with Greta Gerwig , Christopher Nolan, Guillermo Del Toro, Martin McDonagh, and Jordan Peele is incredibly revealing about the way each works with actors, as well the ways that even top-level, maximum-budget filmmaking, is still about the basics of film-making:

Location, Location, Location

Arguably less direction and more technique, Wes Anderson employed a field recording approach to capturing vocal performances for The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009):

What a director does is try to provide a mood, an atmosphere for the actor to do their best work.

William Friedkin

Friedkin Takes

A couple of entertaining quick takes from director William Friedkin – one on dealing with method actors (via New York Film Academy)…

… another on working with Gene Hackman in The French Connection (1971), both in conversation with latter-day Missions: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie (via Oscars):

Further Viewing

H8URS has this playlist of videos on the topic, Directing Actors 101:

What about directing non-actors?

Film School: Directing Non-Actors

Where does the director’s job end and the cinematographer’s begin?

Film School: How Directors Collaborate With Cinematographers