My college degree was in theater. But the real reason, if I have any success in that milieu, so to speak, is because I spent a lot of years directing, I spent a lot of years behind the camera.
I learned quickly at Columbia that the only eye that mattered was the one on the camera.
If I find a comedy club where no one's camera works, I'll go.
When I was little, I had this old video camera, and I set it up, and I would pretend that I was on comedy shows and soap operas and things like that.
When you are younger, the camera is like a friend and you can go places and feel like you're with someone, like you have a companion.
The main relationship in the whole series was the one between the camera and Fleabag. I had to convince myself that whoever was watching on the other side of the camera was instantly complicit with Fleabag and instantly a friend of hers.
I worked a lot on 'Conan' as an actor, and when I moved to New York, a lot of my friends were on the first staff of that show. I started doing bit parts, which was the first thing I'd done on camera in front of a live audience.
It's free of hip dialing. You can have some pretty confidential conversations and not get overheard by the camera man by talking into this flip phone.
I was directing as a kid in movies, and that was always my strongest interest. When I was under contract at Universal, I conned an editing room out of them and spent my money to rent a camera and shoot film and make some movies.
There are certain men and women who, from the minute they step in front of a camera, that's exactly where they belong. Connery's one.
I don't think 'X Factor' would put someone in front of the camera on purpose if they were ill. I don't think that's something they would do. There's psychologists who test out all the contestants before they go on.
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
I've been wanting to do some type of video about the idea that YouTubers have to have some kind of personality disorder, something right, to do what we do. Putting ourselves on camera all the time, being so open on camera all the time, having conventions with our name in it. There has to be something.
I saw something in the news, so I copied it. I put a piece of tape - I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop - I put a piece of tape over the camera. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera.
Kevin Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head. The Indians should have called him 'Plays with Camera.'
Being an actor in TV or movies is different. A film or TV actor, if put in theatre, won't know certain dimensions, while a theatre actor won't know certain things when he comes before the camera. So I think a film actor can learn emoting from this theatre counterpart, while the theatre actor can learn about camera techniques from the film actor.
I admire a person who, for the love of art, is able to take off their clothes in front of a camera. But I'm not capable, I'm too cowardly for that.
The possibility of being as free with the camera as we are with the pen is a fantastic prospect for the creative life of the 21st century.
I cringe when I watch myself on camera. I'm not articulate, and I'm dyslexic, but somehow it works.
I think the crux of this urgent and real conversation about representation and diversity in art-making and storytelling both behind and in front of the camera ultimately has to do with simply seeing more human perspectives.
