{"id":34773,"date":"2026-08-09T16:49:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34773"},"modified":"2026-08-09T16:49:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:49:44","slug":"actors-dictate-film-style-cinema-and-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34773","title":{"rendered":"Actors Dictate Film Style, Cinema and Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m always shocked when an actor says they want to work with me,\u201d filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/james-gray\/\" id=\"auto-tag_james-gray_1\" data-tag=\"james-gray\">James Gray<\/a> told a Sunday press conference at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-2026-preview-adventurous-films-algorithm-era-stars-1236652023\/\">79th edition<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/hollywood-left-and-the-blacklist-locarno-2026-retrospective-1236546957\/\">Locarno Film Festival<\/a>. Shocked, or surprised, was also the reaction in the room. After all, the U.S. auteur is in town to receive the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/james-gray-2026-locarno-award-career-leopard-paper-tiger-1236651656\/\">Career Leopard honor<\/a> at the Swiss festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cActors dictate the style of the film much more than I think is talked about,\u201d Gray also shared when asked about how he works with performers. \u201cI just try to make sure that they are totally comfortable to be excellent. I have no acting talent. I\u2019m not a good director of actors. It is all about how good they are and letting them have the freedom to be themselves in the scene and to listen to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDoes he write films with specific actors in mind? \u201cI try to write the movie not with actors in mind because you\u2019re always going to be disappointed,\u201d Gray offered. \u201cYou write it for some actor, and then you find out that guy is not available for two years, and then they can\u2019t do it. And then, instead of the 6\u20192\u2033 guy, you have to cast the 5\u20191\u2033 guy and rethink it. So I\u2019ve learned never to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAsked about Italian and other film history, Gray on Sunday told the press: \u201cIf I had to pick cinema 1945 to 1980, I would say Italian cinema is everything to me, and I\u2019m not just saying this to play for your sense of self, but it\u2019s absolutely true. The number of Italian directors in that period is an ocean of brilliance \u2013 it\u2019s unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAnd the filmmaker shared: \u201cTo me, movies are the most beautiful art form because it\u2019s the closest thing we have to a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThat also affects how he approaches his own cinematic creations. \u201cI try to show you a version of my own dream, my intimacy,\u201d Gray explained. \u201cIt\u2019s why people say, \u2018I hate that movie\u2019 or \u2018I love that movie.\u2019 \u2026 That\u2019s why when somebody talks behind you in the movie theater, you want to kill them. It\u2019s something interrupting your dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019m always shocked when an actor says they want to work with me,\u201d filmmaker James Gray told a Sunday press conference at the\u00a079th edition\u00a0of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival. Shocked, or surprised, was also the reaction in the room. After all, the U.S. auteur is in town to receive the Career Leopard honor at the Swiss festival&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/James-Gray.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}