What I try to teach young actors – the best thing they can learn is to identify well-written material. The writing in our industry, in a story, is the most important element, bar none. It is always about the writing first.

So what I’ve been able to do – the thing I’m good at, really, is to identify well written material. Now that doesn’t mean the product is going to end up that way. It’s a recipe – and sometimes it doesn’t work – and you’re thinking, ‘oh well, wait a minute, I had all the ingredients, how did this happen?’ That’s going to happen.

But if you start with something that has good writing, you at least have a shot. If you start with something that is not well written, you have no shot of making something good. The best actor in the world can make “C” level material “C+” level material. Maybe “B-”, that’s it.