Are stage actors or film actors more receptive to that kind of approach?
KB: I find my best experiences are with people who do a combination of the two. What you do have from stage actors is an ability to learn three or four pages of dialogue, and to be able to come up with it zippily, and not need to do it line by line. If you’ve got actors who can remember it and are really on the tips of their toes about it, and they’re also good film actors, then I think you get the best of both worlds. I sometimes feel frustrated when I want to do things with the camera and with the scene, which, I believe, essentially, gives the scene to the actors, and an actor can’t sustain it for over a minute or so. But, what these [film] actors do have often is, in the moments they produce, an absolute, laser-beam radio-signal connection with the truth. CMM: Do you consider yourself at this point to be an actor or a director? KB: You know, I have absolutely no idea. I’d like to say just an actor, but I’ve gotten more and more interested in directing because it’s a way of looking
