Daily Inspiration Quote by John Schlesinger

Schlesinger’s compliment lands with the quiet authority of a director who knows that “improvisation” is less a party trick than a controlled burn. Naming Dustin Hoffman and Glenda Jackson isn’t random celebrity roll call; it’s a coded signal about a particular kind of performer: the actor who can generate electricity in the moment without blowing up the film’s architecture. Improvising, in this context, means inventiveness under pressure, the ability to find behavior rather than recite intention - and to do it while still hitting marks, continuity, and story.

The phrasing “certain actors” is doing work. It implies a boundary line in an industry that mythologizes spontaneity. Most actors are trained to protect the script; some treat it as a launching pad. Schlesinger separates the two camps with a director’s pragmatism: improv is valuable, but it’s rare, and it’s only useful when it deepens character rather than hijacks a scene.

Hoffman carries the cultural baggage of Method intensity and meticulous experimentation; you can hear Schlesinger nodding to the reputation for trying things, pushing takes, testing the frame. Glenda Jackson, by contrast, suggests something sharper: an actor with classical discipline who can still pivot, slice, and surprise. Pairing them hints at Schlesinger’s taste: not chaos, not indulgence, but smart volatility.

The subtext is also self-portrait. Schlesinger directed performances that feel lived-in (Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday). His praise reveals what he prized on set: actors bold enough to risk the moment, skilled enough to make the risk look inevitable.