When you take on a new project, the actors are often the last thing on your mind. You’re so focused on storyboards and shot lists that you forget about the people who are actually going to deliver your vision. But for all of your planning, there’s no way to ensure that you’ll capture everything you need until you’re in the trenches with your actors and crew.
As a director, you want the best from your actors. You want them to give their all, and you want them to feel safe enough to push themselves further than they would normally go.
How do you foster this kind of trust? What do great directors (like Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock) know that others don’t? Here are five ways to improve your relationship with actors:
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about lately is our relationship with actors. As directors, we spend so much time preparing a movie before we ever encounter the people who will be most responsible for carrying out our vision: the actors.
When you’re in prep, and when you’re shooting, it’s easy to forget that there are humans on the other end of what you’re doing. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of production and lose sight of how your decisions impact others.
As a director, you have tremendous power over people’s lives; and if you’ve ever worked with actors, you know that they’re an incredibly sensitive bunch. They need nurturing and care, and they rely on you to set the tone for success. If you alienate them or push them too hard or make them feel like they are not important, they won’t perform as well for you; and their performance is literally all that matters.
So I wanted to write a blog about how I think about my relationship with actors, and share some tips that might help you improve yours as well.
My experience is that the best directors and producers are not the ones who become obsessed with storyboards and shot lists – they are the ones who are able to get into a room with a group of actors and collaborate with them in order to create something interesting.
If you want to be a great director, you need to understand actors. And if you want to make great films, you need to build an environment which gets the best out of them.
Here are five ways to improve your relationship with actors:
1) Give them a safe space in which they can explore. Don’t be afraid of silence, or of an actor taking time to explore their character. Actors need room in which they can discover things about their role and how it relates to the film as a whole.
2) Listen carefully when they contribute ideas. Actors often have good instincts about what works and what doesn’t work, even if they don’t know exactly why this is the case. Be open-minded when they suggest changes, and try out any ideas that seem promising (even if you don’t end up using them). You’ll probably find that actors give better performances when they feel involved in creating their own characters’ journeys through your script.
3) If something isn’t working
Actors make the world go round. The actor is the one who brings your character to life, and it’s their performance that can make or break a show. I think everyone would agree that strong actors are essential to good content.
There are many things that can be done to improve your relationship with actors and make them feel appreciated. Here are just a few:
1. Give them an opportunity to talk about themselves
2. Let them know you value their perspective
3. Invite them out for dinner before rehearsals start so they can get to know you better
4. Spend time with them at social events like concerts or parties where they may have friends in common with other people on set/crew members/etc
5. If there’s something they’re interested in learning more about, use your resources and connections to help facilitate that learning process!
* As a director, it’s easy to get caught up in the technical end of filmmaking. You have your storyboard and shot list and script, and you have to make sure your crew knows what they’re doing. But if you’re not careful, you can forget that the actors are part of the team too.
* To work well together, you need to build a good relationship with your actors. Here are five ways to do just that.
1. Talk to them before shooting starts.
2. Give them your time when they need it.
3. Don’t be afraid to improvise with your actors on set.
4. Have fun together!
5. Keep the lines of communication open on set and after production ends.”
Every product has a shelf life – and that applies to actors too. There are a lot of really great top actors who can be in one movie or two movies, but any more than that, they tend to get repetitive.
The actor is a hired gun. They are paid to come in and do the job.
The director’s job is to help the actors do their best work.
There are always exceptions, but generally speaking actors want to be liked by the people they’re working with.
Actors want to be led. Directors who are afraid of giving direction or being wrong are making it difficult for the actor to do their job.
The more you can make an actor feel at home, the better that actor will perform – and the easier your job becomes.
