Directors Who Seemed To Get Great Actors From Anywhere

[MortSahlFan]

Directors everyone wanted to work with. But not just any foreign stars, but talented stars, not the flavor of the year.. Fellini seemed to be able to do this, having an almost obsession with English-speaking actors in every movie with their voices dubbed in. De Sica got Clift (in a very bad movie), and although Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni were in high demand, they were both in at least 5-7 movies of his. I think a lot wanted to work with Stanley Kubrick, too.. Jack Nicholson mentioned (after his death) how he regretted only making one movie with him.

[Mister Six]

David Lynch has worked with loads of top flight talent, and obviously has Laura Dern on speed dial. He has an idiosyncratic casting system and likes unusual faces/energies, though, so he also hires a lot of "Hey, it's that guy!" actors as well as big names.

Wish he'd do something with Nic Cage again at some point. He would've made a good Hutch in The Return, if Tim Roth wasn't available.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Rob Altman.

Apparently Warren Beatty didn't see eye to eye with him on Macabe and Mrs Miller though.

[curiousoranges]

Before his cancellation, top stars old and new seemed to queue up for the prestigious honour of appearing in a Woody Allen film. They'd take the gig for well below their usual fee too.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think Paul Thomas Anderson deserves props as well, mostly for being able to cast Adam Sandler as his usual goofball character but frame it in a moodier-serious world and give him a bit of a temper so he becomes something much more sinister and unpredictable.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Before his cancellation, top stars old and new seemed to queue up for the prestigious honour of appearing in a Woody Allen film. They'd take the gig for well below their usual fee too.

I suspect this is still kind-of the case for Polanski. I caught Carnage on Mubi a while back and there doesn't seem to be any stigma for working with him - it had a decent cast of Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C Reilly and Jodie Foster.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Before his cancellation, top stars old and new seemed to queue up for the prestigious honour of appearing in a Woody Allen film. They'd take the gig for well below their usual fee too.

To be honest even the very much post-cancellation Rifkin's Festival had quite a respectable cast. Not seen it though.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Tarantino. That ill-fated Star Trek thing he was going to do, Patrick Stewart said he'd be in it in a heartbeat, just for the chance to be in a Tarantino film, and I suspect a lot of big actors that he's yet to work with would be the same.

[Crenners]

Terrence Malick is probably the close the thread example.

[MortSahlFan]

Rob Altman.

Apparently Warren Beatty didn't see eye to eye with him on Macabe and Mrs Miller though.

Right, because Beatty hated improv.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Directors everyone wanted to work with. But not just any foreign stars, but talented stars, not the flavor of the year.. Fellini seemed to be able to do this, having an almost obsession with English-speaking actors in every movie with their voices dubbed in.

Terence Stamp was in the "Toby Dammit" segment of Spirits of the Dead because negotiations with Peter O'Toole fell through weeks before production was about to start.

For Casanova, Fellini considered a ton of actors, including Jean-Louis Trintignant, to play the lead, before signing Donald Sutherland. Anyway, it's interesting to see the performance of both Stamp and Sutherland, given that Fellini had a tendency to mime what he wanted from all his actors on a take, then ask them to count to 30 or 50 or to recite the alphabet when they were supposed to speak. Along with Marcello Mastroianni and Giuletta Masina, for obvious reasons, these are two of the few performers who were allowed some real input into their part.
The British Blu-ray for Spirits of the Dead offers the possibility to watch "Toby Dammit" in a mixture of Italian (for almost everybody on screen) and English (for Stamp).

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Before his cancellation, top stars old and new seemed to queue up for the prestigious honour of appearing in a Woody Allen film. They'd take the gig for well below their usual fee too.

Possibly the ultimate example of this. Every fucker with an Equity Card wanted to have a Woody Allen credit on their CV, even if it was in one of his inevitably disappointing late period films.