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Actors look for characters. If they read a well-written character, and if they think the director's not an idiot, they're going to sign up and do some acting.

Actors are like magicians. They'll sit there and do all their tricks to each other. It's very competitive, and the goal is to get them bonding, to get them to know the real person as quickly as possible.

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.

Actors know how to talk to other actors in a way that sometimes other directors just don't.

When actors give their input, it can be very ego-driven, and directors are scared of that.

Actors are conditioned to develop a system for expressing as much as they can in the shortest amount of time because you're going to get all cut up in a movie.

The best actors instinctively feel out what the other actors need, and they just accommodate it.

I think at a certain point actors need to start taking responsibility for the kinds of stories they want to tell.

The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.

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.