Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/584985
PHOTOS: WARNER BROS. dga quarterly 31 from whoever you are, because the camera is a magni- fying glass—I'm not the first one to say this—and you can't really separate who you are from the character you're playing. You can imbue your natural character with other elements that fit the role you're playing, but ultimately you're going to have to take the elements you naturally have and use them. That's what I try to encourage when I direct actors. Q: How do you prepare your actors? A: I think it's important to take the actors to a set so they see it and start to think about it in advance. What I'm not going to do is bring them to a location they've never seen and say, 'Stand there, do this, do this'—they're going to rebel. I don't do heavy rehearsals, but I want to give the actors a chance to get their feet wet and feel comfortable. If you're going to rehearse and rehearse, talk with all the actors about everybody's psychological motivation, [so] when they come into a scene there's no discovery going on. It's not the way life is. For me, that process is the magic of film. But every director works differently. Q: You've done some pretty steamy sex scenes, in An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds (1984), Everybody's All-American (1988), and Love Ranch (2010). Do you do anything different when you shoot those scenes? A: My attitude about shooting sex is very much like my attitude about shooting violence—it should be real. Bodies have to be part of it, but for me it's all in the eyes; you're never going to see a love scene from me in which you can't see the eyes. When I look at a sex scene, it's a dramatic scene like any other. Of course, it's terribly difficult for the actors, and you have to let them feel that you respect their discomfort. But aside STAR POWER: Hackford has often worked with top talent: (above) With Dennis Quaid in Everybody's All-American; (below) with Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe in Proof of Life; (opposite, top left) with Kathy Bates in Dolores Claiborne; (opposite, top right) with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward in Against All Odds; (opposite, bottom) Hackford received the Guild's Aldrich Award in 2007.