It took me a long time to film the plastic bag, and then I had to get the cut of the scene right. But if you find it as beautiful as the character does, then suddenly it becomes a different movie, and so did he as a character. – Sam Mendes
You’ve got to work. You’ve got to want an audience to sit forward in their chairs sometimes, rather than sit back and be bombarded with images. – Sam Mendes
Thank God I don’t live in Los Angeles. I think if you’re there the whole time it just gets out of proportion and you lose touch completely with reality. – 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
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
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 think with Blair Witch and The Sixth Sense, people are much more open to something that is different. – 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
I want to try and work in different genres with different types of actors, on small movies and big movies. – Sam Mendes
There’s good and bad in everybody. I wasn’t looking for the good, or looking for the bad. This is a man who signed his pact with the devil 20 years ago, and he’s learned to live with it. He’s tried to protect his family from it. – Sam Mendes
The movies that influenced me were movies that told their stories through pictures more than words. – Sam Mendes
You freeze with the number of opportunities given to you and just decide to do nothing at all. – 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
The characters are trapped within the lifestyle. It’s about what goes on before the movie starts. – Sam Mendes
Truly great actors carry their characters in silence with them. They communicate without words the relationships that predate the movie. – 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
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
Listen, you make a big movie, you’re going into the Coliseum, and people are going to give you the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And that’s part of the game. It’s part of the fun as well. – Sam Mendes
