Catherine McCormack Quotes

On 'Glee,' the director can be like, 'Hey, your face is looking a little too intense here.' And they can show me the screen, and I can be like, 'I know exactly what to do here.'

I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.

I'm very old-school. I like a director to direct me. I like to be the actor.

The voiceover thing is very selfless. You go in there and they've hired you for your voice, but they know exactly what they want, and the writer's there and he knows exactly how it's supposed to be said. So you can't really argue with them, you just have to let them tell you what to do and then do it.

Working with a great director is like getting a master class in acting.

Working with a great actor is really educational.

Good directors give short and specific instructions to their actors.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn't work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job.

I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

I didn't train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.

When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is going on.

The magic doesn't come from within the director's mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.

I approach directing from an actor's standpoint.

Generally speaking, actors are allowed NO input. Actors are dumb.

I'm one of those lazy actors; I like to take what the playwright wrote and work with that.

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.

I direct as an actor. Many times, I will say, 'Let me try this.' And I'll walk the scene through and see what I can tell the actor about it. I don't know what to tell him until I've actually tried it and seen what the problem is.

Scorsese is a fan of improv and is always pushing actors to think up something that would make the scene more fun. He loves any idea that helps the scene be alive.

I've gotten to work with people like Kristin Chenoweth and Chita Rivera... Seeing their process is so interesting. Seeing that these people aren't immortal - that they go through the same motions as we do and ask for feedback and break down scenes... They have to work, too, and that's really exciting to see.

Each actor, every single time you work with an actor, you have to come up with the language that's going to serve them. And that's what allows them to give the performance that you want to nurture inside of them and what you think they're capable of giving.

For me, all you want from your actor is for them to engage on a deeply emotional level with the material. If you feel like that happens, directing the actors is pretty much done at that point.

It's strange not to allow the actor some input and breathing room into what was written on the page - it is their job to make it come alive.

I believe in giving actors the freedom to express themselves, and adding more to whatever is written.