Jason Reitman Quotes

A lot of directors want to storyboard you, whereas the best way to get a performance out of an actor is a collaborative process where you listen to the actor's input.

Actors, I think, are all the same. Both Korean actors and American actors are all very sensitive people, and they are all curious to know what the director thinks of them and how they are evaluated, and they try to satisfy the director. And they like it if you listen carefully to their opinions and accept them.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.

As an actor, you really want to respect and honor the script. You want to try to be in the moment and you also realize that you're one part of a bigger picture and when they call action, you have your dance.

I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.

It took me a long time to realize that you have to have a bit of an interlanguage with actors. You have to give them something that they can act with.

My experience has been that actors always want to be directed.

You can't create chemistry. In fact, the chemistry between two actors is for people to see, sense, and judge. The only thing we can do as actors is to come on board individually because we feel the same kind of passion for a script and for a director to cast us because he feels that, as actors, we'll do justice to that part.

I have always been a director's actress.

Good actors can tell you more about your play than 1,000 hours alone at your desk.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

I'm an actress who likes a strong, communicative director.

In order to be a good actor, I'm a firm believer that you need to bring something to the table.

Some directors cast you because they trust you to do the performance - but then they forget to direct you.

Being an actor helps me direct a little bit, when I do that, which I haven't been able to do that much, but I plan to in the future. There are a lot of reasons for that, but certainly because I feel like you know how to talk to actors, and you know what they need from you if you've been one yourself.

Reading scripts or commercial copy isn't a problem for me, so I can really focus on the acting instead of it being secondary.

The most amazing thing you can ask for as an actor from a director is that you're being seen, that the choices made are informed.

There's something really amazing about watching an actor like Michael C. Hall or Jennifer Carpenter, who are completely professional and do everything so brilliantly, but yet can have a really great time on set.

I can speak to actors in their terms. Knowing I was an actor, they relax. You can have the best shot in the world - but, at the center of it, you still need a good performance.

An actor can be as talented as another, but if he doesn't stick to what the director's intentions are, it all falls down. I adore working with actors.

You know, I just tend to do the scene that I'm given, really. If it really needs it, then I'll go to them and ask 'What's she talking about? What's she referring to?' But often they don't know, or they do know and they're not going to tell me, so I've learned just to work with what I'm given.

That is one of the reasons one enjoys acting. Now and again, you get scenes where you work with somebody really good and you have a good time trying to make it really work and really work well.

A lot of what acting is paying attention.

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

Some stage directions you just simply have to throw away.