Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/994862
38 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTOS: (L-R) HBO; COURTESY OF DAN ATTIAS; PAUL SCHIRALDI/HBO; CAROLE SEGAL; FX to show that Philip was picking up Gabriel's clients. Father Gregory gives a report. It made no sense to me, and it was boring. In the tone meeting, I said, "Why is it here?" And the showrunners, Joe (Weisberg) and Joel (Fields), said, "Well, we wanted to show that Russian Orthodox priests had to spy for the KGB, and what happened to Gabriel's clients, since this was something Philip now had to do." But why was it taking up so much real estate? Then they said, "Well, we also need him for the next episode, when Philip lines up this priest to marry Elizabeth." Q: The real reason comes out, and it's because later Philip wants his arranged marriage to finally become real in the eyes of the Soviet Union. And now you're stuck with a scene that's really about the next director's episode. A: Right, I'm not winning that battle. It's got to be there. And yet I feel that a string I'm trying to hold taut in my episode drops to the floor when this scene comes on. So I worked with the actors, and then something hits me, and it comes back to inquiring, to the overarching story. Who is Philip? He's struggling, he doesn't like this work anymore. He has a spiritual concern. Well, here's a man of God in Father Gregory. In the tone meeting, they told me, "The priest is lonely now because Gabriel was his only friend." So I've got a man of God, and a man searching for God. Well, what if Gabriel needed those conversations, too? What if Father Gregory sees that in Philip? There was a line in the script when he looks at Philip and says, "You know, we could see each other." So I said to Matthew, "When Q: How do you talk to actors who have lived with characters longer than you have? A: Working with actors above all requires establishing trust. In the episodic world, I can't think of anything more important t o e st a b l i s h t r u st t h a n t o b e a b l e t o demonstrate, to embody, a complete familiarity with everything that's gone before on the show, everything they 've done, and in the moment of giving a note, what they were trying to do in the previous take that you want to adjust. But it has to come from my knowledge of what the scene needs, and what the story is. "Remember, you just found out so-and-so stabbed you in the back, so you're not inclined to assume this person has great motives." Often the actor hasn't even thought of that. They're so busy, shooting out of sequence, making a choice. Your job as director is to hold the whole story, hold that vision. Q: Do you ever turn that extensive familiarity with a show into a visual shout-out? A: A place I added a visual touch as a callback to a past episode was in the scene in The Wire episode "Transitions" between Herc and Carver, when they share a beer in the parking lot outside the precinct. In my prep, I recalled a moment in a previous season in which it was established that cops having a beer after work would ritually hurl their empty cans onto the roof above the station. As an entry into the scene, I he says that, I want you to think he sees something." Now it's a scene not about a craven connection, but about the whole big arc of The Americans, and it made sense as to why Philip would then ask him to marry them in the next episode. Philip thinks, "This man knows something outside the games we play, that speaks to exactly what I've been struggling with." Q: So you shot the scene as written, but now it had resonance. What did the showrunners think? A: Joel Fields told me, "One of my favorite moments in this whole seven years was that call you made about how excited you were that you found this thing." But it was in the written lines. That's why I do this. I connected to what they had set up, then furthered it, made it a better story, and it's still the story they wanted to tell. Q: It stands to reason you work twice as hard, then, on a show that's troubled, or not buttressed by obvious quality. A: Twice would be a relief. When something doesn't work, I can't let it be. Early in my career, I came up with these images. On a good show, I'm so energized to rise to meet the occasion, it's like you're in a wonderful flowing river of riches that just keeps washing over you, and you get to emerge glistening. Whereas a bad show, the image that came to me was like the old Frankenstein films with the electric wires and the corpse, and it's "Is it alive yet? No? More! More!" Something that just sits there dead is so depressing. Attias calls the shots on, from left: Big Love, Manhattan, The Wire, The Killing and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.