Phyllida Lloyd Quotes

I provide the bricks and mortar with the words and situations - the director and the actors and the designers build the house.

I have only recently got interested in film, and it is a strange way of working in many ways. But actually, when it is at its best, it's quite an extraordinary way of working between a director and an actor, to really explore an inner life.

Part of the process of acting in a film that you're also directing is really trusting the people around you to capture your vision, which hopefully you have communicated well to them.

Good directing is about getting the performance to be just what's right for the movie.

I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium.

I'm very interested in directing actors - many directors direct cameras.

I've always been very comfortable in a set environment. All the collaborating going on, seeing how actors work - it all excites me.

Acting is also working with people who invite you into their dreams and trust you with their innermost being.

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

I like to create an atmosphere where actors feel safe enough to take risks.

Acting is about animality. It's great to be allowed to be animal. But I feel more alive as a director. Every morning, I have to write.

Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie.

Directing is very close to choreography; you deal with space, time, emotions, lighting, making beautiful images.

It took me a long time to realize that you have to have a bit of an interlanguage with actors. You have to give them something that they can act with.

I think the toughest thing about being an actor in a film is to be with a director who doesn't know what they want. And that can be really, really frustrating.

I think actors do make really, really wonderful directors.

I started out my career as a screenwriter and quickly discovered that adhering to a script isn't always the best way to make a film. You have to take into consideration the nuances of the characters and what the actors bring to their roles.

Acting is very sacred. Anyone who stands in front of a crew with the camera recording their emotions is a brave individual.

I love the process of working with a filmmaker and the writers and the actors.

Filmmaking is so heavy: there are so many people and trucks and teamsters and costume people and hair people and makeup people. I try to make it light and as simple as possible. It's great for actors. It puts the story up front. It's not about shots and dollies and lighting and sets.

I am a director's actress in general - I depend a lot on them.

Your job as a director is to study the show, understand the show, understand the vibe, the tone, the characters.

Theatre is something that keeps me very alert, and I am actively creating whether I am on stage or directing. In films, I feel I become more of an introvert, going deeper in the realism of a character.

I'm a director's actor and go by what they say.