I’m not asking actors to act. I’m asking them to behave. I want to see their being, not how they can fake it. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
When I cast someone in a movie, I have to absolutely trust who they are as a human being. Trust is the intangible of moviemaking. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
When we make these movies, you sign up for an experience. It’s not just, ‘Action! Cut!’ There’s not that safety in it. It’s kind of a dangerous place to be. I mean, it is safe, but it gets personal. It’s no longer about saying the lines. It’s about really having an experience. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
I never learned to be a writer. I never took screenwriting courses. I never read anyone’s scripts. As a writer, my only guiding principle has been to write about things that scare me, write about things that make me feel vulnerable, write about things that will expose my deepest fears, so that’s how I write. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
With each character in a movie, I’m looking for a human being. I’m looking for a person. And to me, I’m looking for a person that’s full of strengths and weaknesses, a person that’s full of successes and failures, a person that’s full of joy and sorrow. I’m interested in people that are human beings that are alive. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
The only time I judge an actor on set is if they’re not failing; if they get it right all the time, I start to question it. I feel like it’s too easy. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
In terms of Ray Liotta, when I was a teenager growing up in Colorado, I didn’t have pictures of girls on my wall. I had pictures of Ray Liotta on my wall. Along with Mike Patton, he was one of my heroes. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
I think book adaptations, the best one to me is like ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ Which is a short story, 21 pages, that expands so beautifully into a movie. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote
I love actors that are brave, that are courageous. And courage to me is not the absence of fear, it’s the presence of fear, and they go to places that really scare them, because as an audience, that’s where you feel danger. Derek Cianfrance Read Quote