“Everyone can do a character the way they want to do it, unless the director tells them not to, which isn’t very common.”

It doesn’t matter if you work with an Oscar winner or if you work with an unknown actor. There is always a collaboration between the director and the actors, and you always have to listen as the actors have to listen to you as a director.

I discovered early in my movie work that a movies never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. There are times when this distinction may be given to the writer or director. Most often it belongs to the producer.

I’m so dependent on reacting to the other actors on the set, and to the director. I’m very responsive. I react. And I treasure the energy that reaction gives.

The showrunner relationship in television is what the director relationship in film, there’s really no more important relationship.

In Kurdistan, theres a lot of hardship – a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

There’s a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen.

The first cut I do is usually between five and 10 minutes shorter then the cut that we release.

Casting directors now just see me as the hard-core sniper or prison guard.