Sam Mendes Quotes on Performance Arts (12 Quotes)

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.

Comparing the two actors, Jarhead ... They're alike in some ways, both great listeners, but they react very differently. Jake is reacting to everything that passes him by, and is very readable in his reactions, whereas Peter has mastered watching as an art. He sits on it and holds it, holds it, holds it, and then it all explodes in a volcanic way. But they were both right on the edge.

I'm from the theater, where the process of creating a character from the ground up is something that's not imposed on him. We started working on it months in advance, and we rehearsed for two weeks, and even the look of his apartment came out of discussions with him and the production designer.

I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies.

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.

I am not a master-class director. I am not a teacher. I am a coach. I don't have a methodology. Each actor is different. And on the film set, you have to be next to them all.

Actors get used to scenes being cut.

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.

Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

Just because I hold a shot for more than five seconds and it's all a deliberate tableau, people say it's theater. It's not really.

Now I'm back home, living in London, running my theater. I just want to enjoy all that.

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.