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I try to really focus on the actors I'm working with and kind of read and respond to their behavior.

As an actor, you always want to feel like what you're doing is making a difference to the story.

I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.

Actors usually respond to minor aspects of their own character or things that even feel disparate from themselves.

There is a comfort zone of knowing where things are going and having characters in place, but the action gets more and more dramatic and is very challenging to describe.

I treat any scene the same - dialogue, action - you're still creating something in character. It's all acting, fighting.

I go through a whole process with the actors first, building and creating characters, then I encourage them to sort of live in that character when they're in the screen.

The emotions of the actors are better when they understand the chronological factors that are adding to the story.

I try to think what the character is thinking. Then, hopefully, I begin to feel it. I act and react not because I'm recalling a dog killed by a fire engine, but because I'm concentrating on what the character is going through.

Actors want to act. I think a lot of times what happens is that they're expected to bring it all. Probably because I'm a writer, I'm not telling them what to do. I just provide them with as much as I can.