I'm always telling students when I do a master class on audiobooks: 'Watch Meryl Streep. Watch her disappear into a role; watch what she does.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Before I do a movie, I watch Meryl Streep movies over and over. It's not to mimic her. It's to remind myself to be more committed.
At a party recently I was introduced to Meryl Streep, and it took me a second to get my head around it. You know, that I'm meeting these people now. I'm doing it.
As I told the students every time I visited a campus, you are the director of your own movie, and if you aren't enjoying what you are doing, change it.
I taught Sandra Bullock when no one knew who she was. I talked her out of quitting. I put her in a showcase.
When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped.
Even when I was in school shows, in elementary school doing plays, I'd always go off book and start improvising.
I tell students they will know they are getting somewhere when a scene is so painful they can just barely bring themselves to write about it. A writer has to draw blood.
The subjects that I am working are movies that say something. They are shouting or criticising something. I would hate to play a princess waiting for the prince to come and give her a kiss.
People say to me, 'Well, how do you direct Meryl Streep?' You're not wandering over to Meryl telling her how to act. She's an extraordinary talent and unbelievably hard working; she works harder than anyone I have ever worked with before.
When I talk to film students, I always say, 'Buy the DVDs and listen to the commentaries, look at the making of, look at the behind-the-scenes,' because that's such a great learning tool.