A review of what actors are looking for in a director.

1. Source: Directing Actors – Judith Weston

2. Introduction
Actors are an irrational and baffling ‘other’.
Most students graduate from school knowing nothing
about techniques of directing actors.
The worst thing about low-budget films is usually the
acting.

3. The Craft of Directing
Principles are simple and easy – if you know them.
Direction must be objective and usable.
You’ve got to let go of doing something right.

4. The Craft of Directing
Inexperienced Actors (and Directors) are looking for
results, they’re looking for performance, they’re looking
for the right way to do it – to not make a mistake.
Mistakes are not always a bad thing – unlike brain surgery.
A mistake can be a blessing in disguise.We need to get
excited by mistakes and see where they lead.

5. MistakesTeach Us!
You will make mistakes.We are mistake making creatures.
Your role is to bring creativity and a positive approach to
your mistakes, your own and others.
A director who projects her own insecurities onto his
actors is a very bad thing.
“I had no choice” is not a playable choice or decision.You
always have a choice.
Without freedom, there can be no creativity.

6. Opinions are not Intuitions
Many people mistake the ‘movie in their head’ for intuition
or their ‘vision’.
Opinions are easy to have: they require no reflection.
Intuition is not the first idea that comes to you – it is the
idea that lives with you and comes back to engage you.
You need to get below your preconceived ideas and access
your deeper resources and imagination.
The purpose of technique is to prepare the ground for
inspiration and opportunity.

7. Technique Rules!
Technique allows you:
 It gives you something to fall back on while you are waiting
for inspiration.
 It makes you think, makes you chose.
 Learn the Rules and then forget them.
 Trying to be commercial is just an excuse for not doing the
hard work of being original.

8. The Actor-Director Relationship
Rigorous technique and careful detail go into such
associations.
Acting and directing are two very different jobs.
They are two separate skills.
 Director asViewer
 Actor asViewed

9. The Actor
The actor is exposed and vulnerable.
The success of her contribution hinges on her ability and
willingness to allow her contribution to be viewed without
viewing herself.
She must surrender – completely allow feelings, impulses
and simple choices without knowing if they are working or
not.
Actors can (and will) hold back until they decide if they can
trust their director’s taste, intelligence and knowledge.

10. The Actor’s Job
To surrender, to live truthfully in the
moment by moment structure created
by the circumstance of the material.

11. The Director’s Job
The responsibility of telling the story
He must find the structure to the script and set up events
so they are surprising and inevitable.
You give the actor direction in order that the actor’s
actions and interpretations illuminate and create the
events on-screen.
The actor has a responsibility to create truthful behavior
while following direction and fulfilling the requirements of
the script.

13. ACTOR AND DIRECTOR
MUST RESPECT EACH
OTHER’S CREATIVE
TERRITORY

14. Important Facts
We are not dealing with chemistry formula’s here; we are
dealing with human beings.
Actor and Director work to unlock the sub-world of the
script, making discoveries, going places.
They can work together in rehearsal, in private and
surprise each other.

15. “Actors are always at the mercy of the
integrity of the director. It’s a leap of faith,
and sometimes you leap into the abyss.”
Jessica Lange

16. “I’ve often described it (the actor/ director
relationship) as sexual. I’m his concubine.”
Donald Sutherland

17. What do Actors want?
Knowing when to “Print” (or stop filming)!
The worst sin a director can commit is to be satisfied with
less that than an actor has to offer.
Actors must have confidence that you understand the
script, and that the characters and the events that befall
them spring to life in your imagination.
Your understanding must be communicated.
Actors need brief, playable direction.They want to be
pushed, to grow and to learn.

18. “The goal is to awaken your powers of
suggestibility and invention…with love, with
passion, with humility”
Judith Weston