Sam Mendes Quotes
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It's a risk casting anyone against type or what they're known to do. But there's one thing better than having a great actor, which is having a great actor who's never done what you're asking him to do. He's hungry to get out of the trailer every day and hungry to test himself.
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All I know is that I operate by going out to each of them and trying to learn the territory in which they operate. My language to each of them has to suit their brain.
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This is the first time in 10 years I don't know what I'm doing next, and I'm rather enjoying it. Soon I'll be climbing the walls no doubt, but right now, it's not clear, I'm just enjoying the freedom.
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I think with Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense, people are much more open to something that is different.
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I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies.
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It took me a long time to film the plastic bag, and then I had to get the cut of the scene right. But if you find it as beautiful as the character does, then suddenly it becomes a different movie, and so did he as a character.
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The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words.
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If you lived through the shooting of Jaws, you can live through anything.
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I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.
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Shooting action is very, very meticulous, it's increments, tiny little pieces.
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You've got to believe as a filmmaker that if a movie's good enough, it's going to survive; and if it's not, well, it won't.
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As a first-time director in America, I feel I've been very fortunate.
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Listen, you make a big movie, you're going into the Coliseum, and people are going to give you the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And that's part of the game. It's part of the fun as well.
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One of the reasons I loved working with Tom is people feel they know who he is... I think working with an actor who the audience already has a relationship with actually helps you in a film like this.
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There's one thing better than having a great actor, and that's having a great actor who's never done this kind of role before and is hungry to do it. They're testing themselves every day. They want to get out of their trailer and get to work.
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You just never know when movies are going to take off or not. The lucky thing about this was that it didn't cost a lot of money, and therefore there wasn't loads of pressure on me.
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Truly great actors carry their characters in silence with them. They communicate without words the relationships that predate the movie.