John Badham

JOHN BADHAM, legendary film and television director, came to our Studio, and charmed and enlightened everyone who attended. He was so generous and open. Everything he said was both immediately practical but also profound and inspiring. My students, both directors and actors, were energized and re-committed to their work and their creativity. A number of the actors present were especially moved by his loving recollection of working with Sir Lawrence Olivier (on DRACULA). He even quoted Shakespeare! Thank you, John!!

Scroll down past this next impressive paragraph of John’s credits, for the notes from the evening.

John’s career – and the list of movie stars he has worked with – are stunning. He directed SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, WARGAMES, BLUE THUNDER, NICK OF TIME, STAKEOUT, DRACULA, BIRD ON A WIRE, and many other feature films. Then there’s his television resume, which includes directing multiple episodes of CRIMINAL MINDS, PSYCH, THE BEAST, IN PLAIN SIGHT, HEROES, CROSSING JORDAN, THE SHIELD, and many others including the classic Rod Serling NIGHT GALLERY, as well as serving as producer (with Steven Bochco) and director on BLIND JUSTICE. John is also a Professor at Chapman University, where he leads the Directing Program in the Graduate Conservatory of Motion Pictures. And – he is the author of I’LL BE IN MY TRAILER: the Creative Wars Between Directors & Actors, which was published by my publisher, Michael Wiese Productions, in 2006. John and I met at an MWP panel – and became kind of a mutual admiration society. He has always been very complimentary about my book, and I always recommend his.

Here are some rough notes from the evening (thank you to Jay Lewis for sharing his notes with me!).

John had a theater background at Yale Drama School, that’s where he learned to work with and appreciate actors.

There is always time to rehearse, maybe only 15 minutes, but at least that, if not more. At least time to discuss, what are your objectives, what are the beats. Film directors have had scripts for months or more, but actors maybe only a day before. So directors can help actors to learn it themselves, not to tell them, not lecture them, not tell them play it this way or that.

The worst kind of direction: Be sad. Or be angry. But it’s also a waste of time to explain the script with intellectualizations, that’s death for what we do.

Blocking. For dialogue scene, JB allows actors to discover the blocking themselves, although he always has a sketch prepared (an aerial view), in case the actors don’t have ideas. He says, “I’ve tested it – it takes the same amount of time to tell actors what the blocking is, as to allow actors to discover it themselves.” Storyboards are really important for action scenes, not so much with dialogue scenes.

Responding to actors’ ideas: some ideas are wonderful, some terrible, that’s ok. He always says, “Let’s do it” – that way bad ideas quickly fade and great ideas are allowed to be discovered. “Let’s try it” is an open field to play, otherwise creativity begins to shut down. Directors should try to stay open and try things, and should allow cast and crew to do so also.

TV. On a successful established show, one actress wouldn’t even look up from her phone to talk to the director. A director coming in to an established show needs to try to find something to excite the regulars, to get their heart started. It’s almost easier if an actor says, “I don’t like this scene” than if they are uninterested. If an actor says, “I don’t like this scene,” he replies, “What would you like to try instead?”

Listening to a problem often makes it go away. If you can keep your head, you’ll find it’s often easy to solve.

Question: What if an actor is pleased but you [director] don’t like it? JB: If they’re way off, I still try to discuss it, never reject it outright (even if I know it’s dead wrong). I always take them seriously. “Would you do me the favor of trying it the other way also?” Sometimes they’ll say, “No I won’t, because then you’ll use that one.” I say, “I won’t, you can come to the edit room, make the decision.”

Respect, take people seriously, treat them like adults.

Question: Would you speak about your process? JB: I look for the beats, the objectives. You can be very methodical, very thorough. It’s okay to say to an actor, I don’t know, but you don’t want to be caught flat-footed if you can help it.

You’re the leader on the set. In the absence of that someone else will fill the void.

Question: Do you have a shot list every day? JB: Absolutely.

Actors auditioning. “One of the worst things we do to actors is to have all these stage directions.” JB often tries to take those out for auditions. When actors try to play the stage directions it’s very boring and general. Later he said regarding stage directions – cross all those out!

In auditions he wants to find out how adaptable an actor is, so he gives them adjustments.

Directors should be present at casting sessions. It's not good to cast from tape, because you don’t know what the casting director may have told the actors. TV is a Kafkaesque environment. Layers and layers of involvement with casting, sometimes you don’t know about actor replacements until they arrive on set. 

Acting is about playing, we’re trying to capture that playfulness, Richard Pryor was just so playful. Playfulness is critical to success, because it creates relaxation.

If it’s not organic, it’s worthless. When you are brought in as a director on an established series, you need to, “bring something new to CSI but still be CSI.” But when someone asked him whether that means that he always puts in “John Badhamisms,” he replied that he tries not to repeat himself (except perhaps on purpose to spoof himself). 

Question: If an actor won’t come to rehearsal, is it okay to rehearse without that actor? JB: You’re dead without that actor at rehearsal. Just don’t do it. Go to the trailer/dressing room and talk to the actor, get them to come to rehearsal. He said, "I go to see actors in trailer, and ask them 'What are your concerns about today?'" Smart actors are often initially hesitant, too often burned by directors that are intimidated by actors.

He tries to do a little bit of acting when he can, he always learns something. He makes all his non-actor students at Chapman University do some acting; they need to know what it’s like. The greatest directors, Kazan, Redford, Eastwood, were all actors.

Shooting out of sequence. Even a couple of days of rehearsal will help when you have to shoot out of sequence. I try to stay on top of scheduling – production managers et al are not appreciative of actors when they are scheduling (budget, location, etc is what is on their mind). He directed two films that were shot in sequence – WHOSE L IFE IS IT ANYWAY? And NICK OF TIME. He says about those experiences, “What a treat that was!”

What the story is about. WARGAMES to him was not about politics, it’s about a boy who is in over his head. Otherwise it gets preachy. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is a story about a young man with enormous potential, who doesn’t have a place to fulfill it. It’s not a musical.

Dancers. Lester Wilson, choreographer on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, told the dancers to look like they learned from each other, not to look like pro dancers. JB let Wilson choreograph first, then set up the shots to follow the choreography.