Pastoral Resources

Great art direction is NOT the same thing as great film direction!

I love the art of acting, and I love film, because you always have anther chance if you want it. You know, if we - if this isn't going well, you can't say - well, you could say - let's stop. Let's start over again, Gene, because you were too nervous.

I don't know why my lines that were cut from the film didn't make it onto the DVD. I have offered to go into the editing room with Christopher and work shoulder to shoulder with him to fit all my lines in. I think he thinks I'm kidding. I'm only trying to help.

The possibilities are endless for me - Broadway, TV, music and film.

It's a morality film, and it poses the question 'What would you do?' I took it very seriously, just as the director did in terms of atmosphere and lighting, and I was just trying to help that vision along.

But the action film genre is gonna have to come up with some new bad guys.

Justin Timberlake is terrific in this film. I told him it's time to stop singing.

I just have more fun when I get to try new things - and the action film genre has kind of painted itself into a corner, copied itself so many times and it has basically run out of bad buys.

But for me, really, the written word is always stronger than film.

I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!

The film, even when we were making it in that budget range, which was really a coup - we got it made because we pitched it to the studio head, Joe Roth.

With Fever, the film was so made for the screen, and there's so much surround sound that was done for the film - enormous detail paid to that. I wasn't thinking video, because I didn't know how it was going to turn out.

Nowadays I construct my books as if they're film scripts.

I've got one idea I want to do for a film and you know I just enjoy myself doing bits and pieces.

You know, people always think if you start out as a film editor, you shoot less footage. Actually, just the opposite is true. I tend to grab as much coverage as I can because as a former editor I know how important it is to have those few frames.

The Sand Pebbles has always been one of my favorite films, I suppose because its the most difficult film - from a physical and logistical standpoint - that I've ever made.

That said, I'd love to do a musical, either in film or on stage.

But with the right kind of coaching and determination you can accomplish anything and the biggest accomplishment that I feel I got from the film was overcoming that fear.

There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Robert Altman's Nashville is my all-time favorite film because it covers all the bases - it's original, moving, and has something to say, but also funny and incredibly entertaining.