I don't like to rehearse, and the film-makers that I have been drawn to are interested in provoking something between people rather than nailing a scene in advance.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There's a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen.
I never rehearse scenes with the whole ensemble, because I need to preserve some surprise. Instead, I work with the cast individually on their characters.
We are filmmakers, and we are specifically trying to entertain people.
Doing a play, you have a little bit more time, obviously. You rehearse for a month before you get up in front of people. It's a totally different energy. With film, TV, you want to try to capture lightning-in-a-bottle moments. I don't try to rehearse as much with that stuff, because you want those sparks of something to come out, if they do.
I've been doing this for 33 years, and sometimes you make movies and nobody cares. But when people care, it's the greatest thing in the world - even when it's passionately against the title - because it's going to start a conversation.
Almost any film that you do is an opportunity to open you up and make you more aware of an area that you might not be thinking about. That's what is kind of cool, or one of the cool things about this profession.
Listen, there are some movies that are set in stone and the writer or the director does not want to change, but I've never worked on a movie, including my own, that didn't take advantage of a rehearsal process.
I love rehearsing, but a lot of directors don't, and some actors don't.
I've done films where we don't rehearse, and I've done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.
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.