Amy Landecker Says Directors Must Have This Skill

When actors move behind the camera, they bring something most first-time directors don't have—years of watching how the sausage gets made from the inside. They've stood under the lights, waited through those endless setups, and gotten notes from directors both brilliant and... well, less so.

Amy Landecker, who has appeared in numerous film and TV shows including Transparent, The Handmaid's Tale, and one of my favorite movies of all time, A Serious Man, wrote and directed short films before she decided to take on her first feature. She also worked extensively on shows that relied on improvisation, like Louie and Curb Your Enthusiasm, to help hone her writing sensibilities.

She told us that she had wanted to direct for a long time, and in part was inspired by her fellow actor/directors like Cooper Raiff (Landecker starred in his first feature, Shithouse) and James Morosini and Jay Duplass, who all displayed a "just do it" mentality.

Her passion led her to develop For Worse, a rom-com she also produced and starred in. She plays Lauren, just off her divorce and newly sober. She joins an acting class and meets Sean (Nico Hiraga), who promptly tries to get into her pants. Swept up, she agrees to go to a classmate’s wedding in Palm Springs, which doesn't go the way she wants. Other beloved comedic faces pop up, including Ken Marino, Missi Pyle, Gaby Hoffmann, and Bradley Whitford, Landecker's real-life husband.

We Zoomed with Landecker during the festival to find out why actors make good directors, the important lessons she learned, and more.

How to Give Feedback to Actors

Having a background as an actor can be highly beneficial when you decide to step into the director's role and contribute even more directly to the creative direction of a project. Landecker said she believes actors have a distinct advantage when directing other performers.

"I've always said actors make—I'm not going to say that actors will always make the greatest technical directors or a spectacle—but in terms of getting performances, I can't imagine anyone better than another actor," she said.

She pinpointed exactly where many directors go wrong with talent:

"One of the main things is walking in after you do a take and either just sitting there not saying anything, and they're wringing their hands and trying to think of what to say, and then they give you a note. And the whole time you're interpreting that [as], 'You didn't like what I did, I'm bad.'"

Landecker's solution? Feed the seals.

"The first thing you should say when they finish a take is, 'Fantastic, thank you.' Right? Even if it's not the choice you want, even if you don't even think it's fantastic. My husband always says, 'Feed the seals.' You come out to the seals when they're doing a show and you have to give them fish. They need to know they're doing well in order to keep performing."

I remarked that the same could be said for writers. We're extremely sensitive about putting ourselves and our work out there. A producer I knew gave the same advice—in feedback, tell the writer what you liked first, before anything else.

Landecker said this approach works for everyone, regardless of their star power.

"A lot of directors don't know how to feed the seals. And also they think if you're Bradley Whitford, you don't need to be fed that. You just are so confident. That is a total lie. From Meryl Streep to the person who's their first day on set. Every actor will say they're insecure. I haven't met one who wouldn't admit to that and go, 'I need to know I'm good.'"

Confront Self-Doubt

Perhaps most revealing is Landecker's transparency about confronting her own fears about directing. She wanted the challenge of taking creative control, but the leap initially felt too big.

"I didn't feel like I was capable of doing that. I kept trying to give things away. I asked Jay to direct the movie. I talked to Kathryn Hahn about playing me. I just kept trying to give stuff away. And people were very insistent, including Bradley, who I also asked if he wanted to direct it."

She took dramatic steps to address her insecurity.

"I literally hired a cognitive therapist. I did somatic experiencing work, I was doing all this work to work with my fear around it. I really was freaking out. And then I did it and it was absolutely a blast."

There's something particularly striking in the disconnect between her fear and the actual experience.

"It wasn't even that hard," she said. "I mean, it was hard in the best way that things are hard. It wasn't scary, it was thrilling. I didn't feel like incompetent. I felt empowered. I mean, it was bizarre. I absolutely loved doing all of it."

She offered a powerful lesson about not letting fear be the deciding factor.

"I didn't think I could. I didn't want to, and I didn't let my fear talk me out of it. So that I'm really glad I did that."

Since this is a common issue for first-time directors, make sure to check out our tips for overcoming self-doubt and how to get over perfectionism.

Landecker's Biggest Lesson from Making the Film

When asked about her most important takeaway from making the movie, Landecker zeroed in on artistic integrity.

Despite initial doubt, Landecker discovered the power of sticking to her creative guns when potential producers offered funding in exchange for changing the cast or using a preferred crew member.

"I was like, 'Absolutely not.' I wasn't hungry enough, thank God, because I'm older, and I'm not broke. I wasn't hungry enough to give up the artistic choices that I wanted to make, and that really served me."

The advice came from trusted sources in the independent film world.

"Jay Duplass, who's like the king of Independent film with his brother, he's the one who said, do it low budget," she said. "Don't compromise, because you want it to reflect your choices, and then no matter if it's good or bad, you got to do what you wanted to do. And I think that was probably the best thing that happened to me.

"I am really glad all of us who were trying to get this made—the actors, my casting director, everyone who had agreed to it when it was a $4 million budget, stayed with it when it became under a million. And we stuck together and said, 'We're going to make it no matter what.'"

This steadfastness paid off in a deeply personal final product.

"Every actor is who I wanted, and every editor, everybody who worked on [it]—my DP—everybody was what I wanted. And that was my biggest lesson."