Robert Duvall Didn’t Mind Clashing With Directors

Robert Duvall, who died on Sunday at 95, believed a less-is-more approach to directing and often said, 'Get out of my way.' He argued that the best directors direct least so actors can bring their own temperament to a role. 'Actors draw on what they know,' he told Stephen Colbert, adding that 'your anger, your vulnerability — it’s got to be your temperament, without stepping out of that.' He recalled using that belief on the set of Network when a producer came to his dressing room with a note and he told the man to turn around and walk out, with an expletive added.

As his career crested in the 1970s he worked with Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Sidney Lumet, and in later decades with James Gray, Barry Levinson and Steve McQueen.

robert duvall, directing, actors, temperament, less-is-more, network, robert altman, coppola, george lucas, sidney lumet