Sam Mendes Quotes

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Sam Mendes

Profession : Director

Birth : August 1, 1965

The perceived wisdom is that people do not go in large numbers to black-and-white movies anymore - which is a great shame, but I'd love to make a black-and-white movie one day.

Sam Mendes

It's a risk casting anyone against type or what they're known to do. But there's one thing better than having a great actor, which is having a great actor who's never done what you're asking him to do. He's hungry to get out of the trailer every day and hungry to test himself.

Sam Mendes

I still can't quite believe it. Although there was something about the fact that it was a first-time writer, a first-time producer, and a first-time director all at the same time.

Sam Mendes

The characters are trapped within the lifestyle. It's about what goes on before the movie starts.

Sam Mendes

You think about taking audiences on a journey.

Sam Mendes

One of the reasons I loved working with Tom is people feel they know who he is... I think working with an actor who the audience already has a relationship with actually helps you in a film like this.

Sam Mendes

All I know is that I operate by going out to each of them and trying to learn the territory in which they operate. My language to each of them has to suit their brain.

Sam Mendes

For me, certain shots or scenes are keys in the movie.

Sam Mendes

Actors get pigeonholed very quickly, particularly movie actors. In the theater, one is more used to casting people against type and trusting that their talent and skill will get them through.

Sam Mendes

One movie is only one movie. I want to have a lifetime of making films.

Sam Mendes

I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies.

Sam Mendes

I deliberately, in a way, went for something that was a huge challenge and was a big period film. I was excited about the canvas on which I could tell the story as much as the story itself.

Sam Mendes

I don't think good and evil are polarized.

Sam Mendes

When I drive through a field, I want to see green grass sometimes, and I don't want to see black and white.

Sam Mendes

If you lived through the shooting of Jaws, you can live through anything.

Sam Mendes

You've got to believe as a filmmaker that if a movie's good enough, it's going to survive; and if it's not, well, it won't.

Sam Mendes

I don't think of it as a competition - which might surprise you, given the way movies are reported constantly.

Sam Mendes

You're in the lap of the gods. If people go, they go, and if they don't.

Sam Mendes

You freeze with the number of opportunities given to you and just decide to do nothing at all.

Sam Mendes

I wanted to keep exploring... I'm not about to choose a series of movies in which I can use the same bag of tricks and style that I used in the first film.

Sam Mendes