“In the old days when I first was coming up, you would turn up on set in the morning with your coffee, script, and hangover and you would figure out what you were going to do with the day and how you were going to play the scenes. You would rehearse and then invite the crew in to watch the actors go through the scenes. The actors would go away to makeup and costume and the director and the DP would work out how they were going to cover what the actors had just done.” FirstsDonePlayTurnsActorsWatchesMorningFiguresSceneDirectorsScriptsWork OutCoffeeMakeupGoing AwayInvitesCrewCostumesOld DaysHangover Author:Paul Bettany
“I come down as an actor and my marks are already laid out on the floor - somebody else organized what I'm going to do. I think, why am I here? And why I'm here is to express the words with some sort of vague emotion and make them seem real. I wanted to go back to how it was before.” ThinkingRealSeemsWantedActorsEmotionMarkOrganizedVague Author:Paul Bettany
“I do feel that scripts get developed now to a point where they're sort of actor-proof. If the actor is not very good, the narrative still survives because it's all in the dialogue. Not to say there aren't great performances in English-language films, because there are every year, but the 1970s were awash with great performances, and I was wondering whether it had to do with the amount of space and the amount of responsibility given to the actors.” IfsFeelsYearsStillsFilmActorsLanguageGivenSpaceResponsibilityWonderAmountPerformancesVery GoodScriptsProofDialogueNarrativeEnglish LanguageGreat Performance Author:Paul Bettany
“Actors can be many things - vain, venal, self-serving, obnoxious, bullies - but all of the good ones are great storytellers. I wanted to watch what my actors were doing and how they were telling the story.” SelfStoriesWantedActorsWatchesVainServingStorytellerBullyObnoxiousSelf Serving Author:Paul Bettany
“An actor has so much less space and responsibility. Sometimes you come on, and there are already tape marks for where you are supposed to stand, and the dialogue is already decided on. If you want to make a change and contribute something, it has to be approved by a number of people.” PeopleIfsWantSometimesActorsSpaceNumbersResponsibilityDecidedMarkDialogueWhere You AreTapeMaking ChangesApproved Author:Paul Bettany
“I don't want to infantilize the actor; I want to empower the actor. Actors can be many things, but all of the really good ones are really great storytellers, and I'm interested in that. If you're not interested in that as a director then you better be Stanley Kurbrick.” IfsWantActorsDirectorsEmpoweringNot InterestedReally GreatStorytellerStanley Author:Paul Bettany
“I wanted to know as the director how the actors wanted to tell this story I wanted to know what they thought.” KnowsStoriesWantedActorsDirectors Author:Paul Bettany
