Brent Spiner Quotes

It was easy and fun [filming in Hail, Caesar!], and I think it's easy to be intimidated by the Coen brothers, because they're quiet. They don't heap praise, especially upon themselves. It's not like they're walking around thinking they're the greatest thing on Earth.

One of the biggest changes for me on a practical level of shooting the film was having a second unit.

I have been directing and involved in producing and the creating of films for quite a while as well as acting. I always think in terms of what the director needs, and not just for this scene but for the film.

I feel that being an actor is a front-row seat into seeing how everybody else makes their movies. Basically, being in the trenches for ten years is like a college-level course in filmmaking if not more. It feels like every director I work with and every set that I visit as an actor, I see someone else's definition of filmmaking.

Movies are boring. It's like watching paint dry. I did a little role in a movie, and it was eight lines. I was there for three days. It's just horrible. Television is 15 hour days. Movies are 18 hour days. And it's 18 hours of doing not a thing.

My university organised a casting call for a film and I won the role. I played a character who was dying of cancer. I remember in the middle of shooting going, 'Oh my God! Why did I decide to do this?' But people noticed me in it and I started getting invited to castings.

After my 12th standard, I started preparing for the film industry. I've had no formal acting training.

Direction is something that interests me. Even while shooting, I always have conversations with the director to get a better understanding of shooting technicalities.

I sent 'Hell or High Water' to Peter Berg, asking if he'd like to be involved.

When I entered the film industry, I didn't know anything about acting.

I always enjoy shooting for all my films.

We were shooting for 'Aiyyaa' in Yash Raj studios, and I got an offer for 'Aurangzeb.' That's the only time I went for an audition.

I got to work with great actors like J.K. Simmons and Jenna Elfman. They were amazing.

I have been parts of some films in the South where I didn't expect certain shots to be shot in a certain way. I wasn't experienced enough; I was very naive. I didn't have the standing of an actor to say that I don't want to do this shot.

I learned a lot while I was ACing and gripping for other DPs as I was coming up.

From my earliest days as an actress, I had always been drawn to learning the director's job.

As much as I love movies, it would be presumptuous of me to think that I know how to make one.

I think the reason why I haven't done a film in India so far is because I haven't found a script that's completely gotten my attention and made me passionate to get it made. I keep saying I'm not at all famous in my own country, because people do not think I have done anything for India. The reason why I'm making movies outside my country, bit by bit, is to be able to come back to India equipped with the knowledge and understanding of how to hopefully produce my own films one fine day.

Well, I tried being in front of the camera as a student and that was terrifying. But the press stuff about me growing up on his [film] sets has been exaggerated. I was an extra as a kid and I was also a PA [production assistant] on one of his movies, so I was lucky to get production experience. But I was nowhere near him.

With the films I've done, I've written on them, I've acted in some of them. And even ones I haven't acted in, I've acted them out just to be sure another actor can do them.

In moviemaking, you learn to pay attention to detail, because so much is in the detail. And when you're shooting, you try to be very alert to what's going on, even if you're tired.

I got my first part in Silent Fall, 1994 - I guess I was 15 or 16 - which was really outrageous because I still knew nothing. I don't think I really learned how to land on my marks until after Empire Records in 1995, 'cause sometimes I'll see a shot in that film, and I'm like "Whoa, I just walked over to the corner."

Make film, shoot film, run film. Do something. Make film. Shoot anything.

I know that Madonna is not a first-time filmmaker, but I have worked with a lot of first time filmmakers and I have worked with a lot of inexperienced film directors so that never has particularly worried me - I find it quite exciting - but I have never worked with a director who has had so little experience of directing who was so prepared.

I think I was technically uncredited as Local #1, because there were three of us. But I had the most lines [in My Sweet Charlie].