My job apart from anything else is to build an ensemble composed of actors who all come from a secure place so that they can all work together to make the film.
When I was really young, I was reluctant to be perceived as bossy, and I thought that working with an ensemble was about generating a consensus all the time. Later on, I realized that it's actually generous to know what you want and to tell people what you want - actors, crew, everyone.
I'm only involved really right now with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Brass Fantasy.
I've never directed before, so I need to make sure that people know that I can. The movie that I've written, 'The Sophisticates,' is a... small ensemble comedy and I hope it's charming and funny.
Well, it's more of a sane life to be part of an ensemble! I find that the work can be more specific too and I have to really make sure I know where I am in the story because I'm not in every scene.
I'm always having to check myself and make sure I'm not over singing in some ensemble thing that will render me unavailable for participation in the stuff where it really counts.
No great television show has ever rested on just one person. They're all about great ensembles and storytelling.
When I was 13, 14, 15, I had played in a couple of jazz ensembles. I didn't know anything about harmony, about II-V-I, though I had learned my scales with Caesar [DiMauro].
I've never done a [Berthold] Brecht. In the 1960s when the Berliner Ensemble came over [to England] with Helene Weigel [Brecht's second wife], I saw all the Berlin actors. It was an amazing time, very exciting early 1960s.
I love big ensemble shows where there are a lot of things going on and you have to really pay attention because there's a lot of nuanced work and universal themes are being explored.
The challenge, and also what I like most about a big ensemble movie, is that all actors have completely different processes and all of them prefer scenes to be done a different way.
If you get a show named after you, and then play another character, that's fine. But if you do a show that's an ensemble show like... MASH, then you're in trouble.
It's one thing to be a perfectionist when you're alone, but when you're trying to make it work in an ensemble that's a whole different deal.
In a recording, your ear believes and accepts the trumpets as part of the ensemble, but you can't do that in a concert hall.
I prefer live musicians whenever possible. And I tailor the ensemble to what is appropriate for the film and the score I'm writing.
Debts and lies are generally mixed together. [Fr., Debtes et mensonges sont ordinairement ensemble rallies.]
I prefer, and it turns out to be the truth, that I always have in my movies an ensemble of actors, but not just one individual doing the whole movie.
My happiest times in the theater are when I do ensemble pieces. I really got into theater because of that closeness.
Writers, actors, anybody working on an ensemble-type thing, there are going to be some creaks in the beginning. It seems like there's tremendous potential in just letting things sort of breathe a little bit. It's tremendously important.
I don't have any tattoos - I live vicariously through my sister, Langley, who has many. If I can't stick to one ensemble, I don't think I could stick to one tattoo.
A lot of the things I've enjoyed the most and that I think have been the best are ensembles.
This is a natural evolution, building a complete bath ensemble program and the Joseph Abboud bath brand within the Creative Bath family of licensed programs.
We're really fleshing out the whole world of the show [Difficult People]. It's more of an ensemble now, whereas last season we were very focused on establishing the Billy/Julie friendship. Now that that's been established, we don't question that they love each other and what the show's about. So we can meander outside of that.
I never rehearse scenes with the whole ensemble, because I need to preserve some surprise. Instead, I work with the cast individually on their characters.
Picture-taking is an ensemble art-like theater.
