John Frankenheimer

“The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized.”

“There are so many effects and so many things that are done digitally now that it's so hard for the director to really control the process, because there are more and more experts that come in.”

“The accolades usually come when you're dead or too old to get a job.”

“The first thing I can really tell you is I really love the work.”

“There are two things I will never do in my life. I will never climb Mount Everest, and I will never work with Val Kilmer again. There isn't enough money in the world.”

“Then I usually leave the choice of the second assistant director and any other assistant directors to the first assistant director, who will choose because he or she is responsible for the conduct and the efficiency of the second assistant directors.”

“Casting is 65 percent of directing.”

“I think I've made some pretty decent films in the '80s and '90s.”

“A disk unbeknownst to the director can go to the producer in another city or in another office and that producer can edit behind the director's back much easier than in the old days. Since these dailies are now put on videotape, more kinds of people have access to dailies.”

“I look at actors very closely. It's not an accident when the actors excel.”

“To do that I try and keep myself in pretty good shape physically and I try to lead my life in such a way that I'll be able to be as strong at the end of the movie as I am in the beginning.”

“I mean, this whole digital revolution is really eroding the director's importance on a movie because, number one, just from a practical standpoint, with floppy disks and the ability to put all of the film onto a disk, more people have access to the movie.”

“First, speaking for myself, I don't want to ever be in a position where I'm telling other directors how to make movies, because I don't think it's any of my business.”

“I have gotten to a point in my life where I don't want to have dinner with someone I don't like.”

“So I've had really great assistant directors for my last seven movies.”

“And in Hollywood, you know, everyone is an expert. Most of them are expert editors. They can't direct, they can't write, they can't act, but, by God, they all think they can edit.”

“I think that you can't make a movie without a script. But you also can't make movies without actors. You also can't make movies without technicians. And there has to be just one person in charge of everybody, and to me that one person is the director.”

“You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.”

“If you don't cast well, you can be in real trouble.”

“If you cast the picture correctly, you have a whole lot of leeway. You can make mistakes in other aspects but pull it off with the right actors.”