Made (2001)
DIR: Jon Favreau
In the 1990s, Jon Favreau couldn’t really catch a break, and so he wrote Swingers, a film about not being able to catch a break. Suffice to say, that film gave Favreau the break he was looking for, and when it came to directing his first film he did so by bringing in Swingers co-star Vince Vaughn for a spiritual sequel titled Made, a comedy about two aspiring boxers who get involved in a money laundering scheme through a low-level organized crime group. Favreau’s second film, Elf, is easily my favorite of his, a sweet Christmas comedy that has worked its way into my family’s holiday traditions. Favreau later flexed his action directing muscles with Marvel‘s Iron Man, still among the best entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Iron Man 2, not so much). He raised a metaphorical middle finger to the establishment with last year’s indie comedy Chef, a sign Favreau would go back to doing his own thing instead of working within the confines of the studio system — and then he signed on to direct The Jungle Book for Disney. The irony!
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
DIR: George Clooney
George Clooney is perhaps the ultimate multi-hyphenate of Hollywood, at least of the ones working today. I say this because, of any person ever associated with the industry, Clooney is the first and thus far the only one to be nominated for an Oscar in six — count ’em, six! — different categories. Now that’s impressive. But here, the focus is on directing, and Clooney’s first such effort turned out quite well. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a nifty and deftly-handled yarn, an adaptation of Chuck Barris’ autobiography, which details Barris’ account of a scenario in which the game show impresario claims to have once been a CIA hitman. If Confessions of a Dangerous Mind made Clooney’s directorial talents known, then his follow up Good Night, and Good Luck. cemented him as a creative force to be reckoned with. Leatherheads followed next, then The Ides of March, and then The Monuments Men, which after all this time since it was released I still haven’t seen. Between his five directorial efforts, The Ides of March is my favorite, but while Leatherheads catches an astounding amount of flak I still think it’s fun and zany, if completely unsure of itself.
Away from Her (2006)
DIR: Sarah Polley
Stories We Tell served as my introduction to Canada’s own Sarah Polley, but it was her first effort Away From Her that transformed the moderately-known actor into a critically-acclaimed filmmaker, and on top of directing the film, Polley reaped a Best Adapted Screenplay nod for penning the script. Away From Her tells the story of a man coping with the institutionalization of his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Following Away From Her, Polley made Take This Waltz, a comedy-drama about a love triangle starring Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams, and then she went the documentary route with Stories We Tell, a moving tale that details the layers of Polley’s family tree and examines not only the ways we tell stories but the reasons why we tell them. She doesn’t have another film lined up just yet, but if her first three films are anything to build guess from, I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty personal. In other words, Sarah Polley isn’t very likely to take over the director’s chair for Marvel‘s Captain Marvel. Sorry guys.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
DIR: Ben Affleck
I’m going to go out on an admittedly short limb here and say Gone Baby Gone is Ben Affleck‘s best film thus far in his young directorial career. Based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, the film tells the story of two private investigators — played by Ben’s younger brother Casey Affleck and the underrated Michelle Monaghan — who are on the hunt for an abducted 4-year-old girl in the seamiest side of Boston’s underworld. The elder Affleck plays in his own backyard here, and in sticking with what he knows he is able to create a film with a very personal touch, much as he did in penning the script for Good Will Hunting alongside co-star Matt Damon. On the heels of the success of his first feature, Affleck moved on to make The Town and Argo, both critically acclaimed and the latter earning Affleck a Best Picture statuette for producing the project. Affleck’s next scheduled outing is Live By Night, another thriller adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, one I’ve heard a great many things about but which still rests on my bookshelf collecting dust as it waits its turn to be thoughtfully paged through.
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
DIR: Forest Whitaker
In 1993 Forest Whitaker directed the made-for-TV movie “Strapped“, and by that time he was a well known character actor with roles in films such as The Color of Money, Platoon, and Good Morning, Vietnam. Whitaker followed “Strapped” with his feature directorial debut Waiting to Exhale, an adaptation of Terry McMillan‘s novel centered on four very different African-American women and their relationships with the male gender. Frankly, I had no idea Whitaker had even directed a feature film, let alone that he directed a second in 1998 (Hope Floats) and a third in 2004 (First Daughter), or that he is currently attached to several other projects including a Louis Armstrong biopic. I assume most, like myself, know Whitaker as an actor and not a director, but if nothing else this entry goes to show there are far more actors who have tested their abilities behind the camera than we might have previously thought or known.
In a World… (2013)
DIR: Lake Bell
Like a few other things mentioned on this list, I have a bit of a soft spot for Lake Bell. I first saw her on “The Practice” as lawyer Sally Heep and then again on “Boston Legal” as… lawyer Sally Heep. She was the best thing about the 2008 comedy What Happens in Vegas, a movie I shouldn’t even know exists but that I’ve seen more times than I’d like to admit; Bell’s line “You know why!” gets me every time. However, it is her directorial debut In A World… that earned her a spot as this list’s closer, and I mean it when I say earned. A comedy centered on an underachieving voice coach (Bell) who attempts to upend the status quo and win a coveted voiceover gig, the film explores the role of women in traditionally male professions — who else but a bass-heavy male could give weight to the iconic phrase, “In a world…” — and in doing so it positions Bell as a director we ought to keep an eye on. Her followup is an adaptation called The Emperor’s Children and is being written by Noah Baumbach, whose sensibilities should coalesce well with Bell’s talents. After seeing In A World…, I am extraordinarily excited to see how it turns out.
A Few Others
Of course, there are plenty of other actors who have tried their hands at directing. As I said, this isn’t a comprehensive list, though it certainly is long. Most recently, Jason Bateman (Bad Words), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don Jon), and Ryan Gosling (Lost River) have thrown their hats in the ring, but they have a long list of others who precede them, including: Casey Affleck, Richard Ayoade, Warren Beatty, Kenneth Branagh, Marlon Brando, Albert Brooks, Julie Delpy, Vittorio De Sica, Danny DeVito, Ralph Fiennes, Christopher Guest, Tom Hanks, Gene Kelly, Penny Marshall, Thomas McCarthy, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Sydney Pollack, Harold Ramis, Carl Reiner, Tim Robbins, George C. Scott, Sylvester Stallone, and many, many more.
Alright guys, it’s time to close this one out. To quote the old woman at the nursing home in Happy Gilmore, my fingers hurt. Needless to say, the history of cinema is littered with actors who have decided to flex their creative muscles behind the camera. In fact, you could pretty easily argue that a great portion of the cinematic landscape has been shaped by these individuals, both in their successes and in their failures. Some had it what it took to achieve crossover success to the point they became full-time directors; some remained entrenched in both roles over the course of their careers; and still others found themselves unfit for the job, opting to return acting and leaving behind the director’s chair for good. And then, of course, there are those whose legacy has yet to be decided.
But now I turn it over to you. What are some of your favorite directorial debuts of actors-turned-directors? Which individuals do you think have achieved the greatest success behind the camera? Which actors currently transitioning into the role of director do you think are likeliest to be best known for making films instead of starring in them? Who ought to throw away their directorial aspirations and stick to acting? Sound off in the comments below!
