Historically the director has been the key creative element in a film and we must maintain that. We must protect that in spite of the fact that there is new technology that's continually trying to erode that.

I was raised in New York City and raised in the New York City theater world. My father was a theater director and an acting teacher and it was not uncommon for me to have long discussions about the method and what the various different processes were to finding a character and exploring character and realizing that character.

I had come to the point when I realized it was unlikely that my film career was going to move beyond a certain level of role. And I was - because I had graphic instances of it - handicapped by the success of Star Trek. A director would say 'I don't want Jean-Luc Picard in my movie' - and this was compounded by X-Men as well.

The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent actor director producer leading man and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude but true.

The first thing is that we're being attacked by both the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild. Both of these groups are trying to diminish the importance and strength of the director. They're trying to do it through both frontal and side attacks.

I hooked up with director Jacques Audiard for this film called 'Rust & Bone' with Marion Cotillard. I loved that experience so much I'm truly sad that it's over!

I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony which would have been an extremely sad loss.

It's sad - it's sad for us old enough to remember when directors ruled and films were substantially better than they are today. But it's hard to argue with those kinds of grosses.

I have great respect for directors who know what they're doing.

I don't wilt easily and a director can't either. He's the captain of the ship and he's got to be in total control. He also has to have respect for the people he's working for. From being an actor and being on a set my whole life I'm very comfortable there. And I'm not afraid.

I got a nomination for director which means the world to me it's just the most exciting thing for me and my family. You do the good hard work and the rest of it is something you shouldn't get too caught up in but when it happens - boy! I respect it.

I'm getting my respect as a video director. The fashion industry respects me and knows who I am.

The relationship between an actor and a director is like a love story between a man and a woman. I'm sure sometimes I'm the woman.

My wife Jill and I have an incredibly close working relationship and an incredibly happy married one. We met through work. I was the world's worst advertising copywriter. She had the misfortune to be my account director so from the very start she was my boss and she still is.

I've discovered just how symbiotic the relationship is between writers directors and actors. They ask the same questions and strip down texts in exactly the same way.

Film's hard when you don't have any relationship with the director at all and you just show up. Then you really are just a gun for hire.

It's an important thing to have a relationship with the director and have it be a positive one.