
No False Move
Whatever you may think of the late Michael Cimino's films, he had great taste in actors and, at least in this instance, knew how to talk to them. Here's a story from Jeff Bridges: "In 1973, Mike Cimino cast me as Lightfoot in the first movie he directed - THUNDERBOLT & LIGHTFOOT. I was just starting out, just a kid. I remember being up in Montana wondering why he had picked me. I didn’t feeling anything like the character I had been hired to play. I felt inadequate, undeservi

Everything Old is New Again
I advise directors to discuss what they want to see in the next take rather than dissect the one just passed. I urge actors to lean into the next moment during a take instead of assess the one they're in. In my own life I try to practice what I teach. But these days every time I think I'm out of the past, it pulls me back in. I'm in a doc on Tru TV discussing HEATHERS and my experience as Rodney the milk-spewing geek. The release of the INDEPENDENCE DAY sequel has led to lots

A Taste of Kiarostami
A taste of Abbas Kiarostami, one of the greats, now gone: "Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life. When it comes to showing human beings, complexity and concealment are a crucial part of the character. If I show more than my character shows, it doesn't make sense. And if the spectator doesn't accept that, there's not much I can do. One of the characteristics of my new film, Like Someon