On Working with Actors

I was once an actor, and in truth still am and always will be an actor because a director is an actor. You can be a terrible actor but that’s okay, because as a director you get to play all the parts – the good guy, the bad guy, the female lead, the male lead. You can be the child, the family dog, a cat. What fun!

Now, I did star in one of my own movies. I made a film called Frankie and Johnny Are Married which I wrote, directed, and starred in with my ex-wife Lisa Chess. The film humorously chronicles the troubles of trying to mount a production of the Terrence McNally play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. The production is beset by one problem after another which eventually results in the producer (my character) stepping in as the lead role in the play. I made it for three hundred thousand dollars and pretty much lost it all, but that was not the point. The project was a moment of self-exploration and has taken me to where I am. 

It’s very important as a director to try your hand at acting. Take a class, get on stage, fail, and fail big. It’s important because it offers you a window into what the actor is experiencing. It’s one of the things I love most about working with actors – being able to empathize, relate, support, and thereby enjoy their talent and ability to do things I am totally incapable of doing. 

Actors and actresses are driven by a need to self -express through their own emotional instrument. They have chosen a profession where they share their pain, their joy, through themselves. The director, on the other hand, stands back behind the camera and guides and supports the actor’s journey.

But don’t think for a moment that the storyteller is spared the journey of emotional pain and joy. In fact, if done right, directing can be a greater and perhaps more satisfying experience. You are in charge of the whole story, not just one character’s version of the story. You are orchestrating every move, every angle, every close up in the process; you are, in fact, guiding the audience’s experience.