Nia Vardalos Quotes

You have a lot more freedom when you're the sidekick - you can bring a lot more of your own flavor to the role, and you can get away with a lot more.

The great thing about 'Justified' is that the writers will craft a scene, but if the actors come up with a great idea, they're 100% for it.

I really want to have actors contribute their own ideas, with phrasings and ideas on all levels.

When you're acting, you can try your own ideas and be free.

One of the most positive takeaways I've had from 'SNL' is when we'd make videos back in the day: we'd just write material as we were inspired, and so, in a given year, we'd only put out two or three videos.

I believe in giving actors the freedom to express themselves, and adding more to whatever is written.

Acting gives you freedom to express your thoughts.

I have done theatre, and I enjoy the process of smaller films a lot more. When I do such films, there are certain things which I get to do which are untapped. The scenes give me the liberty to play and mould the character in accordance to the director's mindset.

We always try to leave room for the actors to come in and make discoveries on set, in their interpretation of the scene. The shot list is scaffolding.

I love working with actors who will just go, 'Oh O.K., let's try it and see where it goes,' and 'Let's see what we can discover.'

As an actor, I have no limitation. I will do whatever excites me.

What I love about working with Diplo is that it feels very free and fluid - we can work on a song apart from each other or in the studio, and it's always, 'Let's brainstorm, here are new ideas.' I like that kind of workflow, where it's constantly moving.

It seems so cliched and obvious, but write the movie you want to see in the theater.

It's strange not to allow the actor some input and breathing room into what was written on the page - it is their job to make it come alive.

One of the many delights that I found in directing was that you plan so many things so meticulously so that they go smoothly. But you also have to leave time and space for spontaneous emotional moments to arise.

On '8 Out Of 10 Cats,' myself, Jimmy Carr and Jason Manford have got the producers around to our way of thinking - which is to trust us and allow us to ad-lib.

I do better just letting the stories develop. I don't outline very well, and I can't follow it if I do. Once I've outlined it, why write the damn book?

I typically try not to think too hard about what I'm going to do in a certain scene with a certain actor in a certain moment because I think that kind of lends its way to not being as improvisational and sort of carefree as one would hope.

I write my scripts on a whim, without worrying about plot points and graphs.

When I read what 'GLOW' was about, it just felt like something where I could make as many faces as I wanted, and it would totally make sense!

I made 'St. Nick' on a 30-page outline. 'Aint' Them Bodies Saints' was a full-bodied script, but it still had a lot of room for improvisation. There were scenes that weren't there on the page - just a sentence saying something happens. I was like, 'We'll figure this out when we shoot it.'

You get the initial script, and then things sort of change here and there, but the whole thing is this sort of mushy collaboration, which I love.

Sukumar comes from a very different school of working style. He never shoots with set dialogues and scenes. Most of it is improvised on the spot. He'd tell me, 'Rakul, if this is your character, how would you behave? Show me.'

In terms of how I work with actors, having worked so heavily on the script I have a very clear idea of the characters; they are reasonably well illustrated in the script. If you cast it right, to a great degree you can hand it over to the actor and I just make suggestions. I'm not the kind of director who needs or wants to get into too much finessing. Ideally, when you hit the set, you have this conversation, like, 'eh, what did you think?' 'I don't know, what did you think?' 'Why don't we just try it again, make a few physical changes.'

I think in doing stand-up there are no rules and there's no architecture.