Tom Cole Quotes

My own personal process with movies is to develop the characters with the actors and, when I've done that properly, you can't imagine anyone else, but that actor, playing that part.

I loved the fact that Mitch Coleborn wasn't on my radar for 'Stranger than Fiction' until he sent 10 waves of himself to us. Then he went from unknown to having a great section in the movie.

Radha Krishna Sir, the director of 'Jil,' had seen 'Madras Cafe' and liked my acting in it. He wanted a performer and so got me on board.

Certain subjects are best done with stars. Certain subjects like 'Alai Payuthe' are done with non-stars. In such films, stars are a burden.

A movie will live or die with your casting.

When 'The Lighthouse,' bizarrely, became the film that people wanted to greenlight, it was really clear that those were the only two people to play the roles. And I knew that they would want to do it.

For me, casting is very instinctive, and if I don't feel good about it, I just can't go ahead and make the film.

In a film like 'Kannathil Muthamittal,' I can't have a Rajnikanth or a Kamal Haasan. If you have a star, the expectation of the film is different. So, you cast according to the subject of the film. Some films are best done with stars because it gives you a base on which if you can get the correct performance, you can reach higher.

I work with actors who fit the bill. I have worked with Abhishek in 'Yuva,' 'Guru' and 'Raavan' because he was the perfect choice.

After watching my Kannada film 'U Turn,' director Kannan narrated the story of 'Ivan Thanthiran,' and wanted me to attend the auditions in Chennai. He selected me after seeing me perform to two difficult scenes I was given during the screen test.

We considered a few Bollywood actors as well for the villain role in 'Jigarthanda,' but we finally zeroed in on Simha because we felt he would be the most unexpected person to play it. Had we cast someone popular, then it would have become predictable.

There's plenty of examples of films where they're greenlit to move forward, and they want to get X actor. And they don't get X actor, so they go with Y, and it doesn't turn out to be as good of a movie as it should have been.

Foremost is the casting; you need convincing faces. Most of our films suffer from casting.

Any script, even like The Founder, if it's something that I imagine myself playing this character or that character - any of the characters, basically - how do we flesh these characters out to be good enough to have amazing actors that come in that make it really difficult for them to say no? Even though I'm not right for any of those parts, that's just kind of how we go about it.

Using non-actors has its own rules and really requires that you allow them to do their own thing.

I think we all felt it on this movie - crew and cast. You never know when you're making a movie... no one is saying in the middle of Casablanca that this is going to be a classic. The lead actors had turned it down and I think they wound up with B-list actors at the time.

I think a good director casts a film so that the actors bring a lot to the table.

Elia Kazan. He wrote my favorite book about filmmaking, 'Elia Kazan: On Directing.' There is a thing in the book that I do every time, it's part of my production structure. He said when you're hiring an actor, ask them what draws them to the project, and don't lead them to the answer.

I'm very interested in Ben Affleck as Batman. I actually think he's a great choice.

I find auditioning to be a very illusive process, where actors come in with this really big result with no process, so it's a lie already at work.

We originally actually wrote Franco's part [in the Pineapple Express] for me and the part I ultimately played just for someone else in general. Then when we got Franco involved we thought it was a good idea to switch the roles. I think it worked really well.

Auditioning is important, and I understand that. If there is somebody making a movie, if there is somebody manufacturing a movie, they want to look at the goods. I get it. I mean, I've been in that position.

You never have any idea where your movie's going to go when you're shooting - you're in this little bubble. Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it.

If you cast a film incorrectly, then you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.

And they stuck to their guns and fought for Sean Connery, and they were right to fight for Sean Connery. If it wasn't for Sean Connery, we wouldn't all be here. I was raised to fight for what I believed in, so I wasn't going to give up. I wanted Daniel Craig, and Michael wanted Daniel Craig, so we just stuck to our guns. Fortunately, we had the right management who really stuck with us. Thanks to that, we got our choice. He's been an extraordinary Bond, and he is very much the right Bond for the 21st century.