Sam Taylor-Johnson
Sam Taylor-Johnson
Samantha Louise "Sam" Taylor-Johnson OBEis an English filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of the Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon. She is one of a group of artists known as the Young British Artists...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth4 March 1967
biggest face fearless fears hospital work
My biggest fears aren't with my work. My biggest fears are walking through hospital doors. Once you can face that, being fearless about your work is easy.
ahead believe follow leading process seen steps tend three truly understand until work
I always say, and I truly believe this, that my work is three steps ahead of me. I have an idea for something, and I tend to feel like it's leading me, and I'll follow the process through, and it's not until after I've seen it that I truly understand why I'm doing this.
astute clearest detail far work
Even today I work with Niall O'Brien, who is far more technically astute than I am, but I still have the clearest idea of every detail I want in my photograph.
coppola goes scorsese work
When Scorsese or Coppola cast celebrities in their work, it goes without question.
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Sometimes when you're looking at your own work, you can't really see, and it's only when you step back a little bit later that you think, 'Oh, that's completely in line with everything else I've done.'
switch work
I'm motivated every second by my work; it doesn't switch off.
acting interested people proportion seem specific staging work
I'm interested in the acting and staging of specific emotions, and so I work with actors. It's a small proportion of what I do, but it's always what people seem to focus on.
beneath fertile interested life line lived lives people present private public quite taking work
The line between private and public lives is a fertile one for me. I've lived quite a public life, and it's the reason I have used well-known people in my work. I'm interested in what's going on beneath the facades they present to the world, taking them to a place which is uncomfortable.
difficult direct gives men references women work
It's difficult for me to work with women, because I find that direct references are made back to me too fast. Working with men, it gives it a little distance.
interests journeys life particular
I think the whole of people's psychology and where they are in life interests me, and the decisions you make that take you on particular journeys to different places.
artwork cross filmmaking films great precedent
I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.
bad boom quite stepfather
My stepfather was quite into opera, but he'd play it when he was in a bad mood, so you'd hear this boom through the floor, Wagner, and you'd feel nervous.
mind taught
My mum has always been quite free-spirited, and she has taught me a lot. I think that is probably why I have the sort of mind that I do.
beatle exposed lennon mom playing quite
My parents were Beatle fans, but my mom was especially a Lennon fan, so I was exposed to him more. I remember her playing 'Double Fantasy' quite often.