Director's Feedback Quotes

I'm never happy with the work I put in. No. I need to be told by my director and people around me that it is fine. Otherwise, I'll even go, like, 'One more take.'

I don't know, being able to work with Meth was pretty damn cool, but even that day, John, the director, gave me one of the best notes I've ever had. I walked into the scene just completely excited. I just couldn't believe I was going to work with Meth.

I memorize my lines and I show up. I think it's just instinctual, and sometimes it's wrong and the director says, "No, do it this way." And then I can change, because I didn't spend all night practicing it this one way. All I do to get ready for the day is the night before, I read my lines once or twice, memorize them, and then I show up.

I went in for an audition [for As Good As It Gets], but the audition was with James L. Brooks. I was the first girl in that morning, and there was a whole waiting room of girls waiting to read for it. So I did my audition, and he asked me to step outside. So I stepped outside, and when he asked me to come back in, he looked at me, and he said, "Well, I'm very excited to work with you on set." And I was, like, "What?" I thought it was a Hollywood blow-off.

I had to be naked [in Vinyl], but I was almost more nervous about having to be drunk. The director wasn't going to yell, "Too big!," during the nude scene. For the drunk scene, you can be bad drunk or good drunk. We'll see. My wife was not happy, hearing about it.

It's very different working with Vetrimaaran. If he's happy with your shot, all he will tell you is, 'Good job. Go do what you have to next.'

There's a rhythm to script [ in "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore"], as well, especially the pacing of it. But there definitely were times when I would say something and [ Macon Blair] would say, "I didn't think to deliver it like that" or, "I didn't think it had that meaning." And he'd say, "I like it. I think it's good." So he's open. He's not battering it into you.

When we were doing Bullets over Broadway, he told me to be more fragile and I thought I was, but he saw it completely differently.

A big thing for me is trusting the director, so I don't need to watch playback. I feel like the director is gonna tell me whether it's right or not.

If the director says you can do better, particularly in a love scene, then it is rather embarrassing.

If the way I've performed a scene isn't to the director's liking, I discuss it, try to understand why he doesn't like it, and incorporate the suggestions. But sometimes I also take a very strong stand.

It can be insulting to an actor when the director comes out, and they have no notes on the performance, and all they care about is that the camera has to do this one technical thing.

I generally enjoy the rehearsal process because that's where you can share your ideas, get your thoughts and feelings out and see whether or not they're going to land, whether or not people are going to agree with them, particularly the director. So you can sort out in that process any elements that need to be sorted out before you're on the set, and of course that saves time and it also makes everyone more comfortable working together.

I did 40 voices for Chris Wedge, the director of the first film, before coming up with the version we used. He was hard to please, I don't know why. I gave him really slow talking voices. then I thought perhaps Sid could be an Indian sounding sloth. To find out more about my character, I watched footage of sloths. I discovered that the food they store in their pouches rots and ferments and half the time they're drunk.

After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: “She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!”

I'm not used to studios being ecstatic about we did and saying, "Please go do that again."

There are a lot of actors who will watch the monitors. They'll do a scene, and then the director will look back to see if he got whatever he wanted. I just find it odd to sit there and watch yourself. But if you can be objective, I can see how it's really useful as a tool, especially if you're doing something physical.