Johann Johannsson Quotes

I see my actors as my collaborators.

I say yes to everything if I like the overall thing that's being put out there. I'll do anything with David Wain.

If there's anything that I've always said about myself is that to me, it's much more important for me to get to work with filmmakers that I've grown up loving and admiring.

I am very clear that when I work with a director what he or she says is the last word.

As far as an actor-director connection, I think those can develop, and when they do, they're really great, and you just cultivate it like you would any relationship or friendship. If you find that something special, it helps down the line when you want to do more projects with each other.

It's madness to hand in a script to a director, leave them alone, and for the director not to want the writer there with rehearsals and the shoot.

The most important thing for Quentin and the most important thing for me is to make the best film possible.

When you direct a movie, you're basically looking at a story, the way you want to look at it. You bring that director's vision, and I'm totally open for that.

I enjoy directing more when I don't have to direct myself. I like when I can just be the director.

One of the great joys of being able to write something you can make, if you get certain actors you want and love, you're kind of buying yourself a front row seat to watch them work.

I don't really need a lot of help from a director.

The biggest thing I have realized was that you have to choose your collaborators very carefully, and that not everybody can like you. The process of filmmaking is so difficult, there's no point in doing it unless you can do it the way you want.

Tell me one director who will go on record to say that I don't get along with them? I get along famously with all my directors because I am what I am today because of them.

In a collaborative environment directors hire actors because they want their input, not just their bodies.

I'm always cautious about overstepping any boundaries. At the end of the day, it's a director's medium, and if they don't want to hear from me I just step back.

I mean, I'm willing to do anything with Chris Chulack - he's one of my favorite directors I've ever worked with, and I just think he's a fantastic man, and a great creator, and a good friend.

I'd work with Danny Boyle every day of the week. No matter what he was doing I would do that.

I can count on one hand the directors who actually directed me.

Sometimes directors will hire you and say, 'Oh, we love your work.' And then they start to tell you how to do it. I say, 'Hey, man, back off. You hired me to do it. Let me do it.'

In every shoot, between the actor and the director there is manipulation. I'm not saying that negatively. It's healthy.

When you have somebody writing or acting for you, you have to be free to have them hate you so you can get your ideas across without worrying.

It's hard sometimes if you think a character should look a certain way and you're being pushed to do it differently. I've had fights over that. That's why it's so important that you work with good people.

It's really hard as a screenwriter, you feel like you have a vision and then you turn it over to a director and you have to let it go.

I have the highest respect for stars and auteur directors. But I don't want to work with people who only invite me to the preview. We want to be in the collaborative movie business, not the financing one.

I'm not one of those playwrights who says, 'Show up, hit your marks, and don't talk to me!' I always want to hear from the other artists involved, whether it's the director, the lighting tech, or the actors.