When I came to the industry, many directors like Krishna Vamsi and Puri Jagannath had encouraged me a lot. Krishna Vamsi is my mentor, and I admire him. That's why I give chances to new directors.
I've worked with David Lynch since I was 17, and working with him is home and family; being around Alexander Payne is home and family, Jonathan Demme. There are directors... Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson... They are directors where I create homes.
There are some directors I should have worked with. I`d like to have worked with Robert Altman - I turned him down a couple of times when I was younger. My thing now is if it`s a good director I`ll never say no - I`m just gonna say yes from now on.
Most of the directors that I show my movies before the final cut, are directors that I admire, and who do movies that are very different from mine.
That really sets great directors apart from good directors: their ability to make you feel like you matter, even if your part is much smaller. That's one thing I found with most of the great directors I worked with: They all have that skill. Not everyone takes the time.
I can say yes to some directors without even reading a script. But the first-time directors I've worked with, the scripts have not been perfect, but they had something that I liked.
In terms of directors, great actors make directors - Gary Oldman was great to work with, for me; Tim Roth, too. You work with Scorsese and Spielberg and they were wonderful directors, but for me, working with actor/directors is special.
There are two types of directors: the directors who take and directors who give.
The key is working with great directors. A film is so many different people and all their talents, but particularly the directors, because of the idiosyncrasies of that person.
I will say that is a quality I love about great directors, which is the ability to give you one word that can inspire you. I appreciate a director with a very good vocabulary. There are so many directors that I have worked with that can give you one word.
There are times when you work with directors on set, and things are a bit rudderless, and those can be good directors.
I think more than comedy, probably more than straight drama, I like horror. And horror I think I'm particularly good at. It's a mistake a lot of directors make, especially young directors. They always want to make the kind of movies that they most admire and aren't necessarily sensitive to what they have the best skill set for.
But on this show, it's a good question because in the 35 shows that we've done now, I've really made a consistent effort to really shadow the directors because in many ways they have to be more prepared than feature directors.
I felt I knew Lugosi. Like him, I had worked for good directors and terrible directors.
It's not often I get to do a film that turns out good. Plus, there just aren't that many great directors out there. There are a thousand different decisions that need to be made with each script and it's the good directors that can make those decisions. It's a long and complicated process in regards to what looks good on paper. Working on a bad film can be fun too. It can be a good exercise that gets you writing.
I don't go to a lot of other directors' sets; directors don't come to mine. Directors are all very cordial with each other, but they're not necessarily friendly.