It's A Great Luxury For Me To

At A Certain Point, You Have To Convince The Actors That You've Done The Right Thing. The Way I Work, If I Can't Convince Them, I've Got To Move On. I Can't Coerce Them Or Browbeat Them.

As Much As I Liked Acting For Its Playfulness And The Reward Of Hearing Big Laughs Wash Over You On A Stage, I Always Felt I Should Do Something That I Could Control.

I Did A Comedy With Al Franken About His Character Stuart Smalley, Which Was Really About Alcoholism And Addiction And Codependency. It Had Some Painful Stuff In It. When We Showed It To Focus Groups, Some Of Them Actually Said, "if I Want To See A Dysfunctional Family, I'll Stay Home."

My Only Conclusion About Structure Is That Nothing Works If You Don't Have Interesting Characters And A Good Story To Tell.

I Always Claim That The Writer Has Done 90 Percent Of The Director's Work.