Working with Directors: How to Take Direction and Make It Your Own

The relationship between an actor and a director is one of the most important creative partnerships in film and theatre. How you navigate that relationship: how you receive direction, respond to it, and incorporate it into your performance: has a significant impact on your reputation as a professional and on the quality of the work you produce together.

The director's job is not your job

A director is responsible for the entire film: every frame, every performance, the relationship between scenes, the overall tone and rhythm of the work. They are looking at the big picture while you are, quite rightly, focused on the specific truth of your character moment by moment. This difference in perspective is why they give direction and why receiving it well is a professional skill.

How to take direction

When a director gives you a note, your job is to try it. Not to explain why your original choice was good, not to negotiate, and not to argue. Listen, understand, try. You can ask clarifying questions if a note is unclear: "Do you mean you want more urgency in this moment, or more restraint?" is a useful question. "But I was going for…" is not.

The best directors appreciate actors who can take a note and execute it fully on the next take. This requires trust, flexibility, and the technical ability to change a specific element of a performance without losing the overall truth.

When direction feels wrong

Sometimes a note feels like it contradicts the emotional logic of a scene. In this situation, try the note anyway. Often what feels wrong in theory produces something interesting in practice. If after trying it honestly you have a genuine concern, raise it once, simply and specifically. Then, regardless of the response, commit to the director's choice.

Building a collaborative relationship

The directors who want to work with you again are not necessarily the ones whose sessions went smoothly. They are the ones who found you present, flexible, generous with your energy, and committed to the work even when it was difficult. Be that actor.