Steve Antin Quotes

I started working with James [Schamus] early on, and my role as an executive producer was more about being involved in the conversations of putting the film together. I didn't have to do much work because James is the most experienced first-time director you could imagine.

On a movie set that works, you have your father figure, the director, you have your siblings, your other actors.

I knew Billy Wilder socially and would have loved to work with him.

Arnold and Jamie Lee must have worked over the years with directors that did 50 takes, because I'd get like three takes or so and say, Ok, that's it, we're done.

I was speaking to Ridley Scott the other day and he makes a film every 18 months. He's amazing really.

I remember when I first met Katherine Bigelow for 'Zero Dark Thirty' - actually, we met for another movie, and that never got made, and then she called me and invited me to 'Zero Dark Thirty'.

M. Night Shyamalan can draw quite a few people to quite a few things, and having the opportunity to work with him is very cool.

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.

Steven [Soderbergh] is so generous and when I sat down to meet him for "Logan Lucky" he answered so many questions about directing, so when I was on set I tried not to bug him too much.

Usually, those people don't even like actors and they can't wait until they get in the cutting room. They kind of break down in categories: directors who like to be surprised and some of them abhor being surprised. As far as directing, we all direct when we're acting in movies... every single one of us.

If someone were to hire me for a film they'd be getting a certain kind of package, that's for sure, a certain set of tools. But I would listen to the director.

When someone like Steven Soderbergh asks you to do a film you know you're in good hands. You know it's going to be slick, and it's going to be intelligent, and it's going to have a kind of style to it, and I would probably have done anything to be really honest.

A director on a film really sets the tone of how people go about things, so everybody is happy to be at work and everybody does their best.

I look for a director with a script he likes a lot, but I'm probably after the directors more than anything.

When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me.

I worked with John Maybury on The Jacket and I think he's an extraordinary film-maker. I read the first drafts of this piece when I was working on The Jacket, and we'd so fallen in love with him that we thought he was the only person that should direct this! We wrote poems for him, we sent him champagne and cakes. Four years later he finally read it.

I'm very excited about is that my son Scott is a director and he just finished his first picture. It's called "Lucky 13", it's a low budget picture, it stars Jeremy Dillon, Daryl Hannah and Jami Gertz.

It just so happened that J.C.[Chandor] was a first-time feature director, and his script was exactly the kind of thing we were looking for.

I joke around sometimes and say that the DP [director of photography] is like a shrink for the director, but there's some truth in there.

Some directors hand over portions of their movie to their head of department to the point where it's like, "I'm not going to talk to you about the costumes, but I'm going to let you talk to the expert." Rather than, "You want to talk stitching, let's talk stitching. You want to talk grade of leather? Let's."

No one person can take credit for the success of a motion picture. It's strictly a team effort. From the time the story is written to the time the final release print comes off the printer, hundreds of people are involved - each one doing a job - each job contributing to the final product.

[Dario Argento] would yell at you in Italian, and I'd have no idea what he was saying. I'd just go, "Okay!". But it was a really great experience [filming Two Evil Eyes ].

This is the fourth movie that I've done with this set of director-writers and I've learned to trust them at this point, because actually I started on Lego before they did.

[Bong Joon-ho'] is quite different but technically, he is as clever as [Alfred] Hitchcock. That's saying something. In humanitarian terms, I think he is much cleverer. He is one of the best directors I've worked with. I absolutely adore working with him.

A big thing for me is trusting the director, so I don't need to watch playback. I feel like the director is gonna tell me whether it's right or not.