J. K. Simmons Quotes

If your director knows what he wants on screen, it makes things easier.

Part of the process of acting in a film that you're also directing is really trusting the people around you to capture your vision, which hopefully you have communicated well to them.

I love David Fincher - even though it was just two scenes, I loved the way we worked and could tell by the way he was shooting it that this was going to be an affective movie to say the least.

The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie.

Movies are the work of a collective conscious. It takes 500-800 people on a movie to complete a vision.

'Saw' has been a unique experience in that I've had the opportunity to work with some really great artists, and everyone has contributed in so many different ways, in all of the different departments of a film crew.

I see a film or a TV series or a play as being this machine. It sounds quite robotic, in its description, but it's basically a machine and you're just one of the cogs that goes in it. You're not the biggest one, and you're not the smallest one. Everyone's the same size.

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

Good directing is good writing and good casting.

Filmmaking is a creative process so there is a lot of collaboration that happens on set between an actor and director, but at the end of the day, we're there to actualize the director's vision and things happen organically.

A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads.

I shot this wonderful picture called American Saint a couple of years ago, which is still looking for release.

I wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.

Making 'Coraline' was one of the great filmmaking experiences of my life.

In a movie, you're raw material, just a hue of some color and the director makes the painting.

You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.

Good directing is about getting the performance to be just what's right for the movie.

I'd say that the director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell in 'In the Soup'. It was one of my earliest leading roles, and he gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.

My favorite part of the whole filmmaking process is working with a fantastic cinematographer, a fantastic actor or actors, and then just creating emotions and stories. I get so excited by that. That's the part I'm utterly addicted to.

I've been a big fan of David Wain's and was honored to get to be in one of his projects.

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

Quentin Tarantino is a genius. I want to do every single film with him.

When you're acting and directing, you're standing there acting with another actor, and you're trying to do your performance, and at the same time you're watching their performance, and making sure the lights are in the right place, and if the person is wearing the right wardrobe. All these things are going on in your head.

I loved being in Close Encounters, just to watch Steven Spielberg working was exciting.