Quote

When you cast, you can't cast only visually; you have to cast emotionally, too.

Emotions should be real; one shouldn't come across as acting.

If I can get the audience to connect with the characters emotionally - and they love who they are, they love the larger-than-life situation that they're in, but most of all get the audience invested in the characters - then I always feel like I can sort of put them in the most outrageous circumstances, and the audience is okay to go with that.

I think when you're dealing with very tenuous scenes and difficult and heavy subject matter, it's important to be close intimately with your cast as friends, and be able to diffuse a lot of that tension and trust each other with the work.

Sometimes it's all about the casting.

If I'm going to portray one of my idols and someone I feel... so strongly about, it has to be done right, and it has to be done 120 percent.

Casting can be heartbreaking. Dealing with the disappointment is the hardest part.

Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.

So many people have said this, but it's true: 95 percent of what I do as a director is casting and getting people who can bear the load of what you're asking them to do and creating this emotionally safe environment.