John Requa Quotes

A director really doesn't deal with performance that much, especially if you deal with great actors. Their work is the performance. What you're helping them with is all the stuff they cannot be in control of.

I would love to be able to get behind the camera and direct actors. I think that would be a lot of fun.

I had a philosophy, which may have been proven right, that directing isn't as hard as everyone says it is.

I think of myself as a problem-solver. I want to go in and help the director and the writer to get the best they can out of the text they're working with.

I do like directing other people's material.

I love the idea that the editing room is the final time you write. You should still be creatively solving problems even at that point. It's not really until you're locked that you can call it quits.

Some actors give you what you want. Some you have to make do what you want.

Directors have so much else to do besides tell actors what to do. There are so many issues and problems.

I don't do a lot of rehearsal. I don't like rehearsals. I rehearse the day or morning. I spend one hour and a half with all the actors, and we go over the scenes, and we change it and change the dialogue, and we do a lot of things to it, but prior to shooting, I don't really rehearse.

So many designers only sketch and leave pattern-making to others. Pattern-making is important so you know the structure. Then if someone tells me, 'I can't make a pattern from that sketch,' I can tell them, 'I will make it' and then they are quiet. If I can't make it, I don't design it.

As far as working with actors, I feel very comfortable working in that aspect of directing.

There is no doubt that directing television has helped hone my directing skills. What television teaches you is to be efficient and to think on your feet. You have to adhere to strict deadlines and budget constraints.

I find all of my performances come down to mathematics in a sense - how do you approach the problem of this character? Sometimes I crack that problem, sometimes I don't.

I love it when actors come to you with a problem and you have to listen. You'd like them to just get on with it, but it often means that there's a problem with the script.

When I'm actually making a film and trying to find solutions, I like to watch making-of documentaries about huge films, like 'Gladiator.' That couldn't be more apart from what I'm doing, but you see Ridley Scott facing huge problems and fixing them.

My experience has been that actors always want to be directed.

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated.

Schepisi is the sort of director who could, would, and frequently did phone me whenever he came across a textual problem.

I don't believe in development. I believe in pre-pre-production, so when I sit down with an idea for a movie, I'm thinking I'm going to make this film. I don't think about anything else.

With film, so much is in the director's hands. Once something is cut together - unless you're in the editing room - you don't really remember what the alternatives are. The exercise in theater is night after night, you are doing the same play, but you have another opportunity to explore.

Some films, you're lucky enough to get some rehearsal, which is just basic going through the scene, and, 'These are my questions, and this is what I'm trying to achieve,' and you work things out, and maybe a few line changes here or there.

The only musicals I've really worked on in New York are new musicals, and I like the idea that my job as an actor is also that of a detective, archaeologist, and mystery solver.

One of my biggest fears as a director is that everything is taking too long on camera. The actor saying their lines, the silence between lines, the length of time it takes to walk from A to B. So you try it at different speeds and then see what sticks in the edit room.

I see myself stepping more heavily into the producing world. I like having that control, and being in control so to speak, and being part of picking great material and bringing it to life.

As an actor, my No. 1 focus was to be on the same page with the writer, director, and producers.