I depend on good editors and a good director.
I'll always be attached to telly in one way or another, whether it's a character or producer or director, I just love the medium.
One of my first jobs was in a soap opera, five days a week. And what I found is, although there are different directors coming in and different crews, you just lived in your character. It's the nature of the story, the ongoing story, and it can get deeper and deeper.
The directors [who know every detail] make films that are complete, basically.
Some directors hand over portions of their movie to their head of department to the point where it's like, "I'm not going to talk to you about the costumes, but I'm going to let you talk to the expert." Rather than, "You want to talk stitching, let's talk stitching. You want to talk grade of leather? Let's."
When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.
I think if I were asked to do as many as fifty takes, I would assume the director had no idea what he wanted, and was just hoping, eventually, to see it.
Some directors don't tell you that it's not your fault, so you get increasingly depressed that you're not delivering what's required, and then you discover it's not you at all, it's something in the background that's out of focus.
I'm happiest when I can just be a director and watch.
I always go back to the original material. I want a good connection as the composer and writer of the score to the director and to the source material. It's really important.
To make good films, you have to have a good relationship and good collaboration as composer-director, composer-editor, composer-production designer-actor because you're working with the actors on screen.
TV is generally an unfriendly environment for directors because you're expected to come in and tell a story in the voice of the show that already exists, and just fill in the blanks and then submit it back.
I feel like I've had a really great intense relationship with every single Director I've ever worked with. I can't say there's one that hasn't been deep and profound in its own way.
I'm not in a position where I get to pick and choose roles. I usually go on auditions in long lines and embarrass myself in front of casting directors, and with a lump in my throat and my ears burning, I walk past reception and smirking actors as I go to the parking garage and go back on the highway.
For many years, my favorite director has been the Japanese giant Akira Kurosawa.
Some directors are comfortable with music. Some feel comfortable discussing and talking and operating in a musical language. Others don't engage so much.
When I was making films [early in my career] there were very, very few female directors, and there were certainly no women on set, which made taking one's clothes off all the more difficult.
I think I have more of a director's brain than an actor's brain, in a way.
I look for something that grabs me and that's heartfelt, and that's coming from a good place. I want to work with good actors and with directors that I can learn from.
The rule of thumb for a director or producer - which prevents them from just sticking their names on everything - is that you have to contribute substantially more than 50 percent of the character dialogue and story.
When I was a producer, the fun of the show was waking up with a hit and enjoying the period after the show opens. The fun of a director stops the day it opens. No matter if it's a success or a failure, it's not a whole lot of fun anymore.
I didn't go into the theater to be a producer, I went into the theater to be a director.
I try to add as much as I can before a director says, 'Harold shut up!'
The longer I've been a director, the less I have to 'direct.'
I've been able to work with great directors in Israel.
