Issue #198 – July 21, 2019 (The Director/Actor Relationship)

The Director/Actor Relationship
(c) Peter D. Marshall

The importance of the director/actor relationship is a crucial element in the filmmaking process. If the actor and director do not connect creatively or personally, differences of opinion will be difficult to resolve, personalities could clash and performances will suffer.

However, when an actor and director trust each other and can work creatively together to get layered and believable performances, it can create magic on the screen. Here are some examples of famous director/actor relationships:

John Ford & John Wayne; Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune; Tim Burton with Helena Bonham Carter & Johnny Depp; Martin Scorsese & Robert De Niro; Ingmar Bergman with Liv Ullmann & Max von Sydow; François Truffaut & Jean-Pierre Léaud.

10 Stages of the Director/Actor Working Relationship

The following list is a basic breakdown of the director’s working relationship with an actor during the production of most films, which starts in the first casting session and ends in the ADR session.

Depending on your personal relationship with an actor, you could have a slightly different relationship with them during any one of these stages. For example: if you are casting experienced actors for a role in your film, how you perform during the first audition will have a bearing on how the actor reacts through the remaining stages.

1. The Audition (First Interview)
2. Casting Callbacks (Several)
3. Screen Tests (Optional)
4. Actor Interviews/Meetings (Optional)
5. Script Read Through
6. Cast Rehearsals (Several)
7. On Set (Blocking)
8. On Set (Rehearsals)
9. On Set (Shooting)
10. ADR Sessions

NOTE: The number 10 is subjective as you may have more of these stages (actor/director meetings; reshoots after principle photography) or you may have less (no time for rehearsals; no money left for ADR.)

Building Trust

What actors want most from their relationship with a director is TRUST! Actors usually begin a film by fully trusting the director and it’s up to the director to keep (or lose) that trust!

All good relationships are built on trust. Trust means we have confidence in a person because we believe they are truthful and reliable. Trusting someone completely is always a commitment of faith, especially if we need to feel emotionally and physically safe.

Without trust we lose our faith and confidence in a person because we can no longer believe them and we can never truly feel safe or vulnerable with that person again.

Good actors will quite often take their time before they decide they can trust you. If an actor feels he cannot trust the director (to know a good performance from a bad performance) the actor will begin to watch his own performance and when an actor begins to watch himself, he begins to direct himself, and when he does this he starts to become “Director Proof.”

So how do you get actors to trust you?

Actors want a director who can listen to them because they are focused on one thing – the role they are playing. To be believable, an actor must surrender completely to feelings and impulses and good directors understand an actor’s vulnerability and will always create a physically and emotionally safe place for them to perform.

Copyright (c) 2019 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved