Todrick Hall Quotes

I've always been very comfortable in a set environment. All the collaborating going on, seeing how actors work - it all excites me.

'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.

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.

I provide the bricks and mortar with the words and situations - the director and the actors and the designers build the house.

I love the process of working with a filmmaker and the writers and the actors.

Acting is a funny job because you're always playing a hundred levels of pretend, but when you're working with great designers who end up doing a lot of that work for you, you can focus on the things you want to focus on.

Compared to film or television, theater is more interactive, collaborative.

If there's one thing that I know how to do, it's talk to actors. From what I have experienced working with so many different directors in so many different things, a lot of them don't really know how to talk to us.

My first real job as a director was working with Robbie Baitz on his play 'Three Hotels.' It was an incredible collaboration.

Stepping back into theatre, a childhood dream, I always felt like I would be onstage. I hadn't imagined myself in a composer role... I find it so satisfying to be behind the scenes and writing the music and watching it elevated and characterized by different voices than my own. It's so exciting.

Doing theater makes you feel like a real actor.

Being on a film set, you are always around such fantastic people. And I feel like I've been lucky. I feel like I've worked with the best of the best.

Filmmaking is so heavy: there are so many people and trucks and teamsters and costume people and hair people and makeup people. I try to make it light and as simple as possible. It's great for actors. It puts the story up front. It's not about shots and dollies and lighting and sets.

The first time I really had an influence on a show was during 'Ragtime.' It's still the most magical show that I've ever done.

When it comes to writing musicals, you write the best piece you can. Then, its destiny is in the hands of the actors and the director.

I worked with many directors in my life, but Tim Miller is definitely my favorite. He not only has a beautiful sense of directing actors, but he also shares a great love and passion for the comic book world, as I do.

Getting to work with good filmmakers and getting to play good characters in films is so special.

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.

I was really an actor before I knew I could sing. And I just put the two together and went to musical theater school. But acting is a huge passion of mine, so it doesn't matter which medium as long as I have the opportunity to grow and to learn from a piece of work and work with good people, and on a very good-quality project.

After completing 'Aadum Koothu,' I was assigned to act with Cheran again for 'Mayakkannadi.' I learnt a lot working with him.

I am a director's actress in general - I depend a lot on them.

Directing is quite a nuts-and-bolts thing. It's a mixture of creating an atmosphere in which actors can feel safe enough to be dangerous.

Before 'Memphis,' I had never considered working on a musical. But when Joe DiPietro sent me the script, I heard the entire score in my head.

Good musicals, a strange world, seem so easy. People say, 'Ohhh, it's magic.' Nothing's magic. A thing doesn't jell. Adapt. Change the rhythm. Shorten the scene. Rewrite the character. Maneuver the waters. Seeming easy is why so many shows aren't good.

One rule which applies to every role is that you have to surrender yourself to the director with an empty slate.