I love directing movies, to be a director, you know
You have to have a vision, you have to
Well you have to like telling people what to do
That's actually your job,
Your job is telling people what to do and that suits me fine.
Seriously I'm eternally grateful as an actress
that my first movie was directed by one of the worlds greatest directors William Wyler
I adored William, he guided his fumes with a firm hand, a clear vision,
but he also encouraged me to express my ideas,
some he liked some he didn't but he was always willing to listen.
And over the years with every film I made as an actress
I got more and more interested in the technical aspects of film making.
Especially cinematography actually
'Cause I had a wonderful cameraman named Harry Stradling
And he lit my first four films, he loved what he did and always encouraged me to direct.
But it took 14 years to get my first film on the screen as a director
but I loved the challenge of how to tell a story,
most of all getting the best performances out of the actors, this was Cindy Pollock from '"The way we were"
that was during "Nuts", interesting movie wasn't it?
That's Andre Bartkowiak, my wonderful cameraman,
and this was on the set of "The Prince of Tides"
With my dear son my dearest son James was so good and Nick Nolte
and Blythe Danner who was so great to work with.
This is Nick always trying to make me laugh
And this is my dear Pat Conroy teaching me the shame
And this is "Mirror has two faces" with the great Jeff Bridges
And my dear friend Marvin Hamlisch who scored the movie.
But wow that's so nice,
but the movies that I've directed were all labors of love for me
but I have a special fondness for '"Yentl" of course
Because it was a movie set in 1904.
It's a story of a women who didn't want to get married,
she wanted to get an education, which was denied to her simply because of her gender
Directing Yentl was a very gratifying experience for me in so many ways,
I guess it's true what they say too, there's nothing like your first time