Joel Schumacher Quotes

I have always emphasized the willingness to discard.

I'm a guy that wants the movie to work. So whatever it takes or whatever you got to do - I'm happy to do.

You know, I've always been very open to any project.

Any part I do is a marriage of the words - what the playwright or producer or show runner's vision is - to how I would play it. It took me a while to get rid of 'Oh, they want it this way, so I'm going to do it how they want it.'

I don't come in with any preconceived ideas, and although I will have done some preparation, I can go which way the director wants.

You have to be very flexible and understand as a director, especially as a writer/director, that you cannot hang onto stuff really hard. You have to be ready to accept those happy accidents and to anticipate that they are going to happen and capitalize on them.

You need to be open and explore while heading where you want to go. You can never be too in love with your own ideas. If you can remember every idea that is yours in a script, as opposed to someone else's, then something is wrong.

I let my team pick what order the records go. I don't pick my own records. I'm a fan of my music regardless so you have to think outside of the box.

I tried working with the best of directors and producers. I tried being selective, but things didn't work out. Now, I am open to working with anybody and everybody who is good. Or I'll try to make it good. That suits me.

The worst thing when you're working is to say, 'I have a question,' and the other person goes, 'No! This is what it is.' That kind of rigidity is very challenging because musicals are constantly mutating.

I don't want the baggage of knowing things when I walk on to a set. I am more comfortable being an empty slate, surrendering before a director and writer's vision. I've realised that this is the best way for me to function.

There's one rule that I have on my movies, which is that anything that you want to do, you can do. But! There's a flip side to that, which is that anything I want you to do, give it a try also.

I try not to put myself in a box, so I'll write with anybody who wants to. I don't put limitations on my co-writes.

I believe in, 'I do it my way, and you do it your way, and then see what works' pattern. I think that comes with me having worked as an assistant director earlier, which I really enjoyed.

I wanted to be open. On the last project, "Affection," I co-wrote everything. Sometimes, I think, it's smart to step away and be open.

Don't be too precious or attached to anything you write. Let things be malleable.

I don't really dig for answers from the producers and writers that much. I let things happen the way they're going to happen.

An actor who's a control freak, that doesn't work. We have to be malleable. We cannot come in and try to control or dominate.

When you work with an actor and then you discover new things that are better, I think you gotta be free to be able to go with the new things that you're finding. I think that's very important. I have a strong idea when I go to shoot a movie but I also love to discover things when I'm on set as well.

Don't be too precious or attached to anything you write. Let things be malleable. For sketch writers, remember they're called sketches for a reason. They're not called oil paintings. Some of them are going to stink. You have to let them stink.

I know that I don't have a perfect performance that I bring to set. I bring ideas to set, and I'm more than willing for those to be affected and be malleable, based on what the other person gives me.

When I'm doing something, it's something that I had a perspective on in my childhood, or now, but it may be different. I always can go back to what I love, but if somebody has a better idea, then I'm all for it.

Some directors are like it's their... nothing can change, nothing can move. I like collaborating, even when an extra has an idea, I like to bring to really have collaboration.

I'm really a big believer in working with people. It's challenging for me to come into already integrated brands and find a way where I can put my own flair on it.

If you can play, you can play anything. I don't like classifications.