Steve Antin Quotes

I can talk endlessly about characters, or why someone did this or that, and what that dynamic and interaction is. I really love it, and I think that actors really respond positively to the fact that I like to talk about that stuff, because I'm not sure that all directors do.

I love having the opportunity to explore a part for a great length of time, really get deeper and deeper into it, because you only have a chance to do that once or twice in a career.

I can tell you that from the director's chair, young actors love to be challenged, to be given killer lines that take time to wrap their mind around.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

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.

I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.

With any actor, if you know your character well enough, you'll know pretty much what he would say under any circumstance, or whatever situation might rear its head.

My favorite part about working in theater is the rehearsal process. I absolutely love the rehearsal process. Working out the characters, figuring the character out, and the relationships between the different characters. I love all of that, which, unfortunately in film, you get very little opportunity to have.

I love working with actors, and it's all been based on my being trained in the theater.

“Frank’s” really different from everything I've done. Maybe the one thing that's the same, and the thing that I tend to do, is that I think I can create an intimacy with the characters, like a sense of presence with the people in the film, and that's what I tried to do in “Room” as well.

I direct as an actor. Many times, I will say, 'Let me try this.' And I'll walk the scene through and see what I can tell the actor about it. I don't know what to tell him until I've actually tried it and seen what the problem is.

Whenever you have a role where you don't get to know anything about the character, you have to invent it yourself. You have to feel like it came from somewhere.

When we watch a film as actors, you have to understand that we always see much more than what's on screen.

I never do any research for my roles.

From a writer's standpoint, each character and story presents its own unique challenges and delights. I'm deeply curious about all of my characters, and I love peeling away their layers to see what's underneath their skin, or secreted deep within their hearts.

It's nice to create a character, not just within two scenes, but within the journey of a whole movie. It's fun to do that.

As a filmmaker I find it much more rewarding to work with actors who are classically trained. It's about the work and only the work.

There are two schools of thought: There are those actors who explain to you that they know exactly how they're going to do the part... And then there is the other method, which is to have no method at all. This is mine.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

In choosing any role, I ask the same questions: what kind of part is it? is the role challenging? does the director have a vision? is the story moving? etc.

And I have the support of the writers: I have a great relationship with the creative team, and they have a good hold of my character and my personality, and they come up with some great stuff, and I'm forever trying to change it up, keep it fresh.

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.

You spend enough time on set as an actor and it's great when a director was at some point an actor or understands acting. They're able to finesse performances out of you that a lot directors can't get.

Actors, I think, are all the same. Both Korean actors and American actors are all very sensitive people, and they are all curious to know what the director thinks of them and how they are evaluated, and they try to satisfy the director. And they like it if you listen carefully to their opinions and accept them.