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You probably heard this “news” yesterday. You’re hip and with it. You’ve got your ear to the tracks. Your mom follows you on Pinterest. So: Jon Stewart announced that he’s taking a 12 weeks hiatus from The Daily Show this summer to direct his first feature film, Rosewater, about a BBC journalist who is imprisoned and interrogated in Iran. Fun! The movie should be called Funwater lol! Now, here’s the thing about this as far as news goes: it’s mostly just weird Jon Stewart hasn’t done this already. He’s famous and “important” and people “like” him and are interested in what he’s “doing,” so you would think that he would have already taken some time off from his NIGHTLY talk show host job to stretch his creative legs. Sure, man. We get it. Congratulations and please enjoy your time off that is actually not time off at all but an incredible amount of work.
Here is the other thing about this, though: why does everyone think they can just be a good director? It’s weird! I was talking to a friend of mine about this recently who is actually a director, like he went to school for it and is great at it and it is what he wants to do with his life and everything. (I don’t want to name drop, but let’s just say that his name rhymes with Steve-O Snoderborgh. Just kidding. It’s Dean Fleischer-Camp! You know him.) I was asking him, as a director, how much he loved it when the star of a TV show would just hop into the director’s chair for a couple of episodes (I am looking at you with a rude look, Jon Hamm and Bryan Cranston) as if a) this is just a natural progression and as if b) they are the next Wesses Anderson or something. “Oh, I love that,” Dean said, but in a sarcastic tone. Because of course he doesn’t love that, none of the directors do. Because it’s rude!
OK, so real quick let me just point out that I am a big fan of people expressing their creativity however they want, and taking weird, sharp detours from their typical projects. I think it’s fun when an actor starts painting, or whatever. Shaq can rap all night long as far as I am concerned. The weird thing about people just haphazardly becoming “directors” is that a) directing is way harder than they ever seem to give credit for and b) directing unlike painting or rapping at a nightclub actually requires massive amounts of capital investment and also the collaborative work of at least dozens of people, sometimes hundreds. It’s basically like starting your own business for a year. So the implication of an actor or comedian or talk-show host just casually (who knows how casually that might not be a fair word to use) choosing to direct stuff implies that their genius and talent is such that a small army of people should put their LIVES in these people’s hands for however much time and for however much money because they want them to. (This, too, is a simplification, since everyone is allowed to turn down Jon Stewart’s offer of “Best Boy Grip.” But you see my point.)
Again, all I really want is an acknowledgement that this is a weird trend. I’m not saying everyone has to cut it out. If I ever get cast on a TV show and then later am asked to direct an episode, I will direct the SHIT out of that episode, and the first person who brings up this blog post as some kind of proof of my double-standard way of life will get a free punch in the mouth. GRATIS. But it is weird. And it is self-indulgent. And it is, like white people rapping in insurance commercials, a pretty condescending and incorrect interpretation of the art. Admit it. Just admit that to me, please.
R.I.P. Hugo Chavez.
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I think it all boils down to the success of bad movies. They make everybody think that they can make something better. I probably wouldn’t be the next Wes Anderson, but I feel like I could at LEAST be the next Seltzer or Friedberg. And I’ve barely even ever held a video camera!
Maybe people just think “Well if Ben Affleck can do it it can’t be THAT hard.”
So, after this, does he still get to back out of things whenever he wants by playing the “I’m just a comedian” card or is that revoked?
After this he has to move on to “I just want my kids back”
“Those aren’t my pants.”
I guess I understand this, but, it terms of actors being directors, haven’t some of the top actors (in terms of awards, maybe not actual quality movies) been from some good/ok actors that actually did better behind the camera? Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Ben Affleck, the guy from Super Troopers. If anyone realizes how tough it is to be a director, wouldn’t it be the people that work with directors a ton? Since they already have the experience of making a move or tv show, they know some of the problems directors face before stepping behind the camera.
But on the other side of that coin, you have Crispin Glover and Elizabeth Banks.
And Robert Redford (shudder)
Pickpocket – do you mean in terms of good or bad? Because even if you aren’t a fan of his movies, award wise/acclaim wise, his movies have done pretty well.
And obviously there are going to be actors/actresses that are awful at directing. But then you also have directors that are awful at directing.
I’m being mostly facetious, I guess. I don’t really care for his weepies but I know they’re not the worst movies out there.
I will acknowledge that this is a weird trend. Also weird: people from reality shows thinking they can write novels. It doesn’t require the capital investment but it should be super hard. If it’s really easy to write a novel you are doing it wrong.
HEY GABE, just FYI, something ON THIS page is triggering a giant HERE BE MALWARE ENTER AT YE OWN RISK splash page IN Chrome.
I proceeded ANYWAYS (because FUCK YOU, Chrome don’t YOU TELL me what I can or CAN’T DO on my OWN COMPUTER IN AMERICA) but I JUST thought YOU SHOULD know so YOU CAN still get the sweet page views from THE MORE COMMUNIST/non INDIVIDUALIST minded READERS.
yeah, I ended up opening Safari (gross) to get on here.
It’s not really that weird. Some become directors, some become children book authors, some become Val Kilmer. There’s just a lot of actors.
Some time-lapse fruit bats from their office.
can this be where i talk about how much i hate patti smith’s and micheal stipe’s terrible vanity photography projects? that routinely get featured in publications like aperture and get massive gallery shows? the photos are terrible terrible terrible terrible i hate them all so goddamned much.
Thank you for this!!!
I agree that it’s a trend. But I see it in a similar way to some actors who go to school, receive all kinds of drama training, work their asses off, and then someone who has a pretty face or a famous last name and no experience gets the job. If these guys (John Stewart, et al) happen to make a good movie, you can bet there are knowledgable, trained people behind the scenes doing the hard stuff.
I pretty much agree with you Gabe, but to play the devil’s advocate a bit John Stewart has produced this show for 10 years or more and has some showbiz experience. I would even say that his experience with this show might translate into good directing skills. It’s not like Taylor Swift just said I want to direct.
I think this is a bad example, too. (Though I know it was just the inspiration to bring up something Gabe’d been thinking about for a while, not the smoking gun that he’s been waiting for in order to finally rest his case).
Stewart’s experience producing a show and coordinating a writer’s room etc etc probably count for at least a couple of semesters of directors school. And considering the subject matter, it seems likely that this is a movie he’s been involved with since the beginning – he didn’t just waltz into a studio and say “I’m a director now, may I have a script please thank you!” I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, and there’s a good chance this movie could be cool!
Plus John Oliver is filling in for him and that will be so much fun!
With John Oliver filling in, I might actually tune in for the first time in a while. Stewart is fine, but watching him every night of the week eventually gets exhausting.
No this is the smoking gun to end all arguments! FOILED!
Yes, John Oliver is a plus!!!!
Are you guys Buglers?
I’ve listened a few times and enjoyed it. The only reason I’m not is that, like a lot of people, I have a hard time finding the time to listen to podcasts regularly.
No, it’s in my queue. I listen to podcasts at the gym.
I listen to podcasts on the bus, and since I live alone I listen to them while washing dishes, cleaning, etc. Basically all the time.
can I ask a lame question here. Is John the one married to Samantha Bee? I’m behind on my People magazine reading.
Nope. He’s the english one. Samantha Bee and Jason Jones are married.
For the most part, I think TV directing is much, much different from directing a movie. TV show have an established team that is there week in and week out, the director is essentially just in charge of making sure they get the shots in the shot list and maybe directing the actors’ performances a bit.
I don’t think there’s nearly as much need for technical know-how or artistic vision or whatever because the show already has people in charge of those aspects of the production.
Uh, you KNOW THERE’S whole departments that DO THE SAME thing on a MOVIE? RIGHT? Part of the WHOLE REASON some critics ARE VERY MUCH against the AUTEUR theory.
He means that on a tv show, those crews have already been hired and work together well and already have a set artistic direction. In a movie, you have to pick them and tell them what you want it to “feel like” or something, you’re starting from scratch in a way that you aren’t if you direct an episode of a tv show in its third season.
Yeah, with movies the director is usually involved in casting and also in hiring the whole crew, and has a lot more say over changes to the script. In TV they do the job for one week and then some other guy does it the next week but every one else remains the same. There’s still a show runner that can overrule the director of the week on any decision.
Ron Howard made the actor to director transition pretty well.?
Guys, don’t pay to go to film school if you want to be a director. Get practical experience on sets in other jobs like Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, PT Anderson and anybody who directed a film before 1960. Going to film school to be a director is like going to business school to become a CEO.
But film school automatically makes you a great director! As evidenced by the directedy by an NYU Film Professor classic The Letter!
What’s really weird is when people who haven’t been to film school and aren’t even famous decide to direct a movie.Those people have to be stopped.