Steve Buscemi Quotes

As an actor, I had noticed very vividly that very few directors know how to direct actors because they haven't done it.

Good directors give short and specific instructions to their actors.

I do think that's so much a part of what being a director is - in working with actors - to really try and be sensitive to what each actor needs to get to where he wants to be.

Being an actor really, really strengthens me as a director. There's just a certain type of understanding that comes from having been there and knowing how much is really being asked of actors that helps me.

Jack Bender is a real actor's director. Because he was an actor, and because he directed theater, he really enjoys that process.

I'm very old-school. I like a director to direct me. I like to be the actor.

I didn't train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.

The best way to learn how to work with actors is to have had experience of trying to act yourself - it will teach you humility if nothing else.

Each actor, every single time you work with an actor, you have to come up with the language that's going to serve them. And that's what allows them to give the performance that you want to nurture inside of them and what you think they're capable of giving.

I think acting is boring because you have to sit for a long time. And being a director I am used to running around and being busy on sets. I lack the actor software.

I know with Gary Ross especially, he kind of gave me pointers here and there, but he kind of let me become firm in any way that I needed, and he just let me try things and to explore what I can do with my acting. So that was very helpful.

I guess once you've been acting for a long time, you glean the great bits of good directors and the bad bits from other directors, and you know the way that you would like to be directed.

Working with a great director is like getting a master class in acting.

I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.

Working with a great actor is really educational.

Being an actor helps me direct a little bit, when I do that, which I haven't been able to do that much, but I plan to in the future. There are a lot of reasons for that, but certainly because I feel like you know how to talk to actors, and you know what they need from you if you've been one yourself.

An actor can be as talented as another, but if he doesn't stick to what the director's intentions are, it all falls down. I adore working with actors.

I think acting really helps as a director. It's just no question, because you totally understand the acting process.

I don't usually direct actors in the classic sense of that word. Instead, I try to remind the characters before the shoot what's going on in a very simple way. I then watch them, their inventions as actors, approving or not approving what they're doing.

Working with Adrien Brody was like going to Julliard, but instead of four years, I went for four weeks. He was like the Albert Einstein of professors, it was just the best experience of my life. Adrien was the most influential mentor in my acting career thus far, and even after the movie he continues to mentor me.

I've grown tremendously as an actor by being there. It is comic writing the likes of which I don't know that I'll ever see again and it's been a great, great experience.

I try to get the best performance an actor can give.

A lot of directors straight out of film school are very technically minded, but they don't have an understanding of actors or how to talk to them.

Actors always feel more comfortable when there's an actor directing, in terms of vocabulary and breaking down a scene.

My strength is with actors. I think I'm good at working with them to get the best performances, at seeing what it is that they have and that the story needs.