Working With Actors

I'm going to write this one a little differently, because this is the part of filmmaking I know from the inside. I've stood on the actor's mark for thirty-five years, under directors who made me brilliant and directors who made me wooden — and the difference had almost nothing to do with talent and everything to do with how they treated the people in front of the lens. Your actors are the face of your film. Audiences don't watch your shot list; they watch human beings. The good news for indie filmmakers is that working with actors costs nothing but knowledge and care.

Casting is 90% of directing

There's an old saying that casting is ninety percent of directing, and it's true. The single biggest thing you can do for your performances is cast the right people in the first place. A brilliantly cast actor who simply is the character gives you gold with minimal direction; a miscast actor fights the role no matter how hard you both work. When you're casting for indie films, look for more than talent — the right essence, the ability to take direction, and someone you can stand to work with for long, hard days. Indie film casting is as much about temperament and reliability as the read.

Running a good audition

Make the room safe — nervous actors give bad auditions and you'll never see what they can do. Be warm, let them do their prepared read, then give them an adjustment and let them go again. That second take tells you whether they can change, which is everything. When you have a shortlist, do a chemistry read with your leads together; two great actors with no chemistry will still sink a love story.

Rehearsal: do the work before the clock is running

Whenever you can, rehearse before you're on set burning daylight. Rehearsal is where you and your actors discover the scene together — relationships, subtext, rhythm — so on the day you're capturing something you've already found instead of searching in front of forty waiting crew. Even one rehearsal, even a phone call about a character's history, pays off. But don't over-rehearse to the point the performance goes stale; build a foundation, then leave room for the alive thing to happen when the camera rolls.

The language of directing actors

Here's where so many directors go wrong. When directing actors on set, give them actions and intentions, not adjectives and line-readings. Don't say "be sadder" or "say it angrier" — telling an actor the result just makes them play the emotion from the outside, and the camera sees through it. Instead, give them something to do. Actors work in verbs: to plead, to threaten, to seduce, to protect. "Try to make her stay without admitting you need her" is a direction an actor can play. "Be more vulnerable" is not. And never give a line-reading — saying the line the way you want it said. It's the fastest way to insult an actor and get a hollow imitation. If they're missing it, adjust the circumstance — what the character wants, what just happened — and the reading fixes itself.

On set: create safety and trust

An actor's best work requires vulnerability, and vulnerability requires safety. Create a space where actors feel protected enough to take risks and even to fail. Praise specifically so they know what to keep ("that look before the line — that was the whole scene"), correct gently and privately, and never embarrass an actor in front of the crew. For difficult emotional or intimate scenes, close the set and handle the day with extra care and clear boundaries. Give your actors your full attention after each take — nothing kills a performance faster than a director mumbling "good, moving on" at the monitor. The care you show your cast comes back to you on screen, every time.

You don't pull a performance out of an actor. You build the conditions where they can give you their best — and then you get out of the way.