I always like being a director in terms of giving acting notes and punching up on the fly.
The thing about the movie 'Navy SEALs' is that it was just such a waste. The script could've been shaped to be much better, and you just hate to see all that talent and passion go to waste.
I've never taken a script to the stage or to principal photography and said, "This is perfect. This is as good as it can possibly be." It's not Shakespeare, you know; you know it can probably be better.
The problems I have with a flawed script are always revealed in the editing room.
If you take 'Cheers' and 'Seinfeld' and watch the early shows, they're kind of awkward. It took a while for the writers and everything to gel.
It doesn't help anybody to put out a bad script.
I very rarely read a script that I don't feel I want to change a lot.
If there's something really, really bothering me about a script, then I'll say something, but otherwise I find my answers in the script.
Every script always goes through rewrites so that everyone loves it.
If I do do a sequel, I'm going to have to know for sure that the script is better than the original. So I'm going to be very careful about that because I'm not eager to repeat myself.
I think sequels should be earned and we won't do it unless the script is better than the first one.
I find that when you read a script, or rewrite something, or look at something that's been gone over, you can tell, like rings on a tree, by how bad it is, how long it's been in development.
You learn, even at 'S.N.L.,' that the funniest scripts a lot of the time were written with the actor, because they know what makes people laugh. It's always going to be better if they own it.
Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them.
I can say yes to some directors without even reading a script. But the first-time directors I've worked with, the scripts have not been perfect, but they had something that I liked.
Obvious things like The Deer Hunter. After that happened, the scripts got better. Opportunities happened.
Finding a good script is really difficult and the scariest thing of all is when they say about a script that's not right, "we will fix it.." It's like before you get on the Titanic and you see a big hole. In process, it's too late.
I wake up to an email from the writers with the new script, and I always get so excited because I know it'll be better all-around than the script from the week before.
We taped all this and then got it transcribed and picked the best lines or ideas or ways to take a scene. I've done that many times, and it can improve the script but also wreck a perfectly good scene.
The key is, if you're not monkeying around with the script, then everything usually goes pretty well.
I've rewritten a lot of the scripts I've done. 'Little Shop Of Horrors' was a complete rewrite, but I didn't touch the dialogue. Essentially, I'm a very good editor.
I'm used to changing a lot of the dialogue. But if I feel like the script is working, I don't want to mess with it.
I think of myself as a problem-solver. I want to go in and help the director and the writer to get the best they can out of the text they're working with.
With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it's going to translate easily.
In TV, I did scripts that were not well-written, and I learned how to make bad material okay. That's a hard thing to do; you can learn bad habits, but you can also learn to find something in anything.
