I come from a tradition where the writer writes a play for the actors, rather than for himself, and the dialogue is made to work onstage, so it needs actors to help shape it. So you never get a play right straightaway.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think actors always find the dialogue doesn't quite fit, so you always have to play with it.
You need the actors to feel as much ownership of the performance and the direction of the story as you do to get the most out of everyone's potential. Part of it is just making sure we all have the same vision.
There is such a thing as my kind of actor, and how well they pull off my dialogue is a very, very important part of it.
Once you see the entertainment world from both sides, you really get a greater understanding of how it all operates. As an actor going into screenwriting, I was able to understand what type of dialogue feels natural and what an actor could actually say.
Sometimes the writing can be so good that the actor doesn't really have to do anything.
Actors are such wonderful creatures and such wonderful instruments. It's always different on the page or in my head. I hear it differently. I see it differently. And then, you give it to an actor, and it comes alive in a way that you didn't expect.
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.
As an actor, I've always been interested in making sure I can perform the role and the lines in the way the writer intended.
When the scenes are written really great, we as actors try not to mess them up by getting in the way.
There's nothing like a play. It's so immediate and every performance is different. As an actor, you have the most control over what the audience is seeing.