What Acting Has Taught Me About Directing

One of my favourite moments as an actor is when a director offers an angle I haven’t considered. I arrive with my own understanding of the character, and then a suggestion opens up something else. They see a possibility, I bring my interpretation to it, and together we discover something neither of us could have arrived at alone.

Now that I also direct, I recognise that exchange from both sides. I can have a clear idea of a scene in my head, but an actor arrives with a whole other life for it. Learning how to work with that difference has become one of the things I enjoy most about filmmaking.

Where it began

My fascination with storytelling started long before I understood any of this. My mother was a playwright and author, and when I was a child, she would take us with her to theatre shows around the country. I would watch performances from beginning to end, fascinated by stories unfolding in front of me.

At home, I was absorbed in Arthurian legends, Norse and Greek mythology, and a series of encyclopedic books filled with children’s stories connected to history. I read them whenever I could. Alongside those books were Ninja Turtles, He-Man, BraveStarr, and all these animated worlds full of extraordinary possibilities. I wanted to tell stories like that.

As I grew older, I began connecting my fascination with pictures to my love of stories. Photography became part of that, and I started collecting photography books. When I was about twelve, a filmmaker and director who was a friend of my mother’s put me in a couple of his productions. Suddenly, I could see the people behind the camera and the process of making those images happen.

Acting continued alongside my visual communication studies. I was doing graphic design, photography, animation, motion graphics, and video work. Those worlds kept expanding, but they were also gradually coming together. It took time for me to recognise directing as something I could pursue wholeheartedly. Eventually, I became convinced that getting myself to America was the next step I needed to take, and I began putting that plan into motion.

Working from both sides of the camera

Being an actor has shaped how I approach the people in front of my camera. I know what it feels like to arrive with an idea, to feel uncertain, or to receive a note that doesn’t quite make sense yet.

Specific direction doesn’t usually bother me. Sometimes a note is purely technical because the performance is already working. Other times, a director needs something different for the story. I enjoy working that out together.

The more difficult moments are when I can’t connect a note to what the character is experiencing. Technical instructions can sometimes restrict something that needs room to happen organically. There can be all sorts of reasons for that: experience, different interpretations, or a gap between the vision and what is possible under the circumstances. You still work together and find a way through. As an actor, that is part of the job—working within those imaginary circumstances and the practical conditions around you.

Directing has made me appreciate how much is happening on the other side of that conversation. Sometimes I need a character to reach a particular emotional place because of where the story is going. But the actor’s interpretation may suggest that the character should arrive somewhere slightly different. That deserves exploration.

I love it when actors ask questions about where their character is in a scene and what that moment means. Especially in a longer story, those conversations matter. The audience is following a journey, and each moment contributes to how they understand it.

I’ve also had actors bring ideas that were vastly different from mine and made the whole thing better. Sometimes a performance needs a little nudging. Sometimes I need to recognise what is already happening in front of me and give it room. That discovery is a huge part of the pleasure of directing. I love working with actors.

Creating room to play

Some of the most practical things I bring from acting begin before we ever get to set.

I know how intense an audition can feel. When I’m casting, I want to take away as much of that pressure as I can and create a safe space to play. If that is the atmosphere I want during the shoot, it makes sense to establish it when we first work together.

There is already a reason I’m interested in an actor—something I’ve seen that connects with the character. I want the audition to give us a chance to explore that connection. The sides give us a starting point, but I’m interested in what happens when we begin working together.

Finding our rhythm on set

That carries into the shoot itself. I know the pressure of the first take on the first day. You’ve prepared, you’re there, and suddenly it feels like crunch time.

Where the schedule allows, I like the idea of beginning with something less demanding: a smaller scene, perhaps a transition, that lets everyone settle in. It gives the actor a chance to inhabit the character without immediately having to reach for the most emotionally demanding material. By the time we get to that, we’ve already started finding our rhythm together.

A lot of my approach comes from remembering the things I found difficult as an actor and considering what might have helped. Sometimes that means explaining something early so an actor doesn’t have to worry about it. Sometimes it means giving them time, or being open to an idea I hadn’t imagined.

I want actors to feel safe enough to explore and comfortable enough to surprise me. We’re both there because we care about this story. The fun is in figuring out, together, how far we can take it.