Sam Esmail Quotes

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

I try to learn from both, from features and documentaries. In both cases you have to find a way to make the camera as discreet as possible, and flexible enough to be able to capture the moment when it happens. I know from documentary how to not have a preconceived idea of what the scene could be.

Directing was easy for me because I was a writer director and did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay.

I started out my career as a screenwriter and quickly discovered that adhering to a script isn't always the best way to make a film. You have to take into consideration the nuances of the characters and what the actors bring to their roles.

I hope to direct at some point, but I don't feel the pressure to rush it. I want to really know what it is that I'm doing.

There's more to directing than plotting scenes out.

In a nutshell, directing 'The Gift' was all about understanding how the complex machine that is 'Game of Thrones' works.

I like working in television because it's an evolving story that you tell. That's also one of the things I don't like about it, too. Because sometimes it's hard, and just when I think I've nailed something, it changes or we have to change it or change the joke or the character is evolving in a way that I don't have control over.

Directing is a tremendous art.

When I do a movie, I have the script. I know how it begins and how it ends. I know what my character does and where he's going. If I have ideas I want to express or changes I want to make, there's one guy: the director. It's different in television.

The storytelling in a movie is in the cut; it's in the edit. It's not an actor's job, really. Your job is such a tiny little thing, and I love the feeling of juggling or tightrope walking.

When you are acting, you are just one piece of the puzzle. You don't see how everything fits together. It feels like you have less authorship over the entire product. In directing, you take the entire picture into account, so you're challenged in a different way.

I think that's the key to being a director: to be able to get the shot and move on quickly.

The great thing about film is you start and finish. It's a journey that lasts so long, TV lasts a long time.

What I do have to get across is the truth of the moment within the given scene. It's my job, as a director and screenwriter, to create the environment in which all those moments will come together eventually.

When I write a screenplay, and when I direct, I always pull lines out.

I'm in awe of directors like the Coen brothers who can shoot their script and edit it, and that's the movie. They're not discovering the movie in postproduction. They're editing the script they shot.

I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.

I feel 'Breaking Bad' - maybe everybody says this about their show - I feel like this show is so special that I don't 'know' that I necessarily really know what it's like to do a regular show.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

Films are all about decisions, and that's what I love.

Directing is a unique endeavor where you are in charge of so many people. As a writer, it is sort of the opposite.

When you're making a television show, it's about the story and arc of the show rather than any particular episode or director.

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.

It is Method on 'This is England;' it is. But it can't be Method on every job because it just doesn't work for everything.