David Cronenberg Quotes

I relieve myself from the rigours of directing by casting the movie correctly.

I usually try not to think about actors while writing, because the odds of those stars aligning and you getting those specific people are so rare.

Making a film, setting it up and getting it cast and getting it together, is not an easy thing.

I keep saying this, but the most important part of directing is casting, and the rest of it is pretty easy.

You just start going through that process of trying to put together a cast that works. I don't know that I can explain it in a way that you can go, 'Oh.' It's a little bit like saying, 'How would he be with him? How does that feel?'

Usually when I write a movie, I'm lucky if I get one good actress.

Directing films is easier said than done. The job needs a lot of sensibility to put many things in place.

Fifty-percent of the director's job honestly is casting the movie well.

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 am very filmmaker oriented, as a producer. I think the most important thing is that you have to really choose the players carefully.

Casting a film is to me one of the most important things next to the writing. If you cast it properly everything takes place very easily. If you cast it improperly you're fighting an uphill battle.

I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director.

All movies are alchemy and time is one of the ingredients that goes into the alchemy. You want the time to be right; you don't want to rush it. You need the right script, the right cast and the right feeling in the culture.

If it's something I feel I can do alright, I like being in those, and some that I think Rob Schneider and David Spade would be funnier at than me, I tell them to do it. I don't have any clue how we decide. There's this thing, this "Click", actually, one of my friends called me up, my partner told me about this idea that Steve Koren had. Steve Koren, by the way, the guy who wrote it with Mark O'Keefe, Steve Koren I've known since I was 22. He was a page at Saturday Night Live.

I'm always involved with casting my movies. I have final word on it.

When I'm casting a picture, I think who I'd like to see in it if I was sitting in a theater. Who would surprise me?

So, most of it was done over the phone. But one of the first things I did as a director, because it's one of the first things you should do, even though most don't, is to ask good actors who they think is right for the part. They know better than anybody. But without missing a beat Maggie said Pauline Collins. I didn't know Pauline because I hadn't seen Shirley Valentine, but then I saw this thing that she did with Woody Allen [You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger], in which she was wonderful as a psychic, and I said to her on the phone: "The dialogue seemed improvised."

When you start on a new film, no matter how many you've done before that, I think I've done close to 80 films, but it's always kind of a fun adventure.

In the horror genre, unfortunately you sometimes have the studio tell you, "No, go with more unknown people because it's a scary movie," and I disagree.

Making a movie is casting a spell.

I believe really deeply in the pilot process because you learn things about tone and casting.

I noticed while working on Green Lantern that the actor - albeit forefront in the film, obviously, and the key focus for the audience - is kind of the smallest cog in the machine when you're shooting.

I really enjoy the process of making movies. The only thing that really concerns me is working with great directors and actors, and that is fun and exciting.

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.

I think of making love and making art as being very parallel. Even the most amateur attempt can be thrilling.