17 Actor-Director Collaborations We Want to See on the Big Screen
Unless you’re prolific executive producer, creator, writer and director Tyler Perry, film is widely considered to be a collaborative art. Since directors work with actors to bring life to the words written by talented writers, the way making a film works often has us ruminating on who we’d like to see fill those various positions in dream scenarios.
It’s even something actors themselves aren’t shy about discussing. Back in May, Jacob Elordi spoke to the New York Times Style Magazine: Australia about working with Sofia Coppola on her Priscilla Presley biopic, Priscilla. The Euphoria star said that the collaboration is “like something that you would think of in a dream, and then it coming true and then having to live it — it was nothing short of magic. I learned so much about filmmaking.”
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Along these lines, Cinema Solace asked Twitter, “What’s your dream director-actor pairing?” and was met with a bevy of responses. Here are some of the most inspired options users cooked up, and how they could take form on the silver screen…
John Waters Directing Miss Piggy
The temperamental diva is one of the few people in showbiz who could do the inimitable Divine justice in a filthy, campy biopic from the Pink Flamingos director.
Jordan Peele Directing Jesse Plemons
Ever since his pivot from comedy to psychological thrillers, Peele has made a name for himself in the world of horror in just three critically acclaimed films. His stories serve as the perfect playground for someone like Plemons, a man whose unnerving presence is known to be a standout in the films and shows he appears in. Maybe Peele can get a 2-for-1 special and add Plemons’ wife Kirsten Dunst to the mix.
Rian Johnson Directing Anthony Carrigan
We need the Noho Hank accent to stick around for this one.
Sofia Coppola Directing Chloe Sevigny
The Venn diagram between Coppola and Sevigny is a singular circle, and it’s almost shocking that the two haven’t worked on a film together before. Perhaps the ideal pairing to navigate women in punk and the riot grrrl movement.
Gregg Araki Directing The Muppets
Imagine the Muppets smoking weed and taking a Smiley Face-style mission. Yeah, we need this collaboration now more than ever.
The Daniels Directing Pedro Pascal
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are very much products of the internet. Meanwhile, Pascal is the internet’s latest fixation, and having bared his comedy teeth in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and SNL, he could do wonders with an absurdist comedy from the minds of The Daniels.
Greta Gerwig Directing Ayo Edeberi
Gerwig’s bread and butter is the life of the American woman. Taking her talent from the Twitter timeline to The Bear, Edebiri is very much proving herself as a Renaissance woman in modern comedy and her ethos lends itself naturally to Gerwig’s worldview.
David Lynch Directing Patti Harrison
Lynch is known for his surrealist takes on the American Dream. Harrison was banned from Twitter for impersonating Nilla Wafers to parody corporate pinkwashing. These two things feel in conversation with one another.
Bill Hader Directing Bill Hader
The Hader-ssance we’re in would absolutely peak.
David Fincher Directing Mia Goth
Fincher is no stranger to directing hellbent women on a warpath, and after her ax-wielding star-turn in Pearl, Goth fits seamlessly in his directory of unhinged women.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge Directing Jennifer Lawrence
Would this combination see the Tumblr-Industrial Complex wreak havoc with reaction GIFs and memes in ways we haven’t seen before? Yes. But the Emmy and Oscar winners have compatible sensibilities that do make sense, so it might be worth it.
Martin Scorsese Directing Lady Gaga
With Gaga starring in the upcoming sequel to a film that was more or less a repackaging of The King of Comedy, why not give the singer and Oscar-nominated actress a chance to work with the real deal? Two Italian girls from New York making magic together.
Wes Anderson Directing Tyler the Creator
Tyler the Creator’s luxury brand Golf Le Fleur is very Anderson-coded, so it wouldn’t be farfetched to see the Loiter Squad rapper in one of Anderson’s whimsical worlds.
Taika Waititi Directing Andrew Garfield
They should be best friends. That’s the entire premise.
Greta Gerwig Directing Romy Coppola Mars
Romy Coppola Mars’ TikTok antics make it clear that she has starpower, whether her filmmaker mother Sofia Coppola likes it or not.
John Waters Directing Jennifer Coolidge
Conceptually, it’s hard to imagine what this pairing would entail, but we need to see it on the silver screen immediately.
Jenna Ortega Directing Kevin Hart
Maybe this is the buddy comedy we need right now.