Star of stage and screen Patrick Wilson joins us to talk all about his return to the Insidious franchise in the final chapter “The Red Door”, as well as his first time in the directors chair. Patrick shares some of the most influential directors he’s worked with throughout his career, some Scream Queens he’d like to direct if given the opportunity, and that actors should not be so precious with their process and remember that acting is a collaboration.
“A good actor has to be able to take a note like ’tilt your head this way because the light is hitting you there’, and then its up to the actor to go ‘okay, I need to give myself a reason to look up here’,” Wilson explained. “You’re not always going to get a director who says ‘here’s your motivation for looking up to the right.’ and you’ve got to be okay with that, so you can’t be precious. Some of the best directors that I’ve had were not ‘actors directors’, talking deeply about the scene with me. That doesn’t make them not a great director. This is a filmmakers medium.”
There’s a frequent trend of directors taking an acting class to learn and understand an actors process so they can become better collaborators with their actors. “No offense to actors, I’ve been one for thirty-something years. But it’s not all about you. It’s a visual medium and you have to be able to do your homework. You can’t be grumpy that they’re not discussing every beat. You’re in their movie, so maybe you need to understand their process.”
