James Mangold Explains His Writing Process Vs. How He Directs: ‘I Have Learned This Way of Working from Watching Masters I Admire’

The esteemed filmmaker behind the Johnny Cash bio-musical “Walk the Line” and superhero drama “Logan,” James Mangold has done it all. He’s torn up the race track with “Ford v Ferrari,” been the only director other than Steven Spielberg to take the helm of an “Indiana Jones” film with last year’s “Dial of Destiny,” and later this year, he’ll debut his Bob Dylan drama starring Timotheé Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown.” Before he began his career as a filmmaker, he learned from legends like Alexander Mackendrick (“The Sweet Smell of Success”) and Milos Forman (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”).

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In a recent response post on X, (formerly Twitter, ) Mangold explained his creative process and how it was passed down from these “masters,” as well as gathered from watching the work of others.

“I have learned this way of working from watching masters I admire. Some masters have been my teachers in person. Many more have been my teachers as I absorb their great work and dissect it,” Mangold wrote. “In practice, I write describing what I hope to see and hear.”

Mangold went on to dismiss the use of terms like “EXTREME CU or WIDE ON” in his scripts, instead choosing to describe surroundings or “the light in a character’s eyes.” At the same time, when he shifts behind the camera, he doesn’t hold too tight to any of the specifics he wrote down.

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“When I direct, I don’t expect all the things I wrote to be followed literally by my actors or even myself. Instead I expect myself to adapt my original intentions and plans on paper to take advantage of what is actually happening,” Mangold wrote in his post. “That is not to say I abandon my intentions. It is like when you are driving somewhere. You make a plan on how to get there but then you hit traffic or a storm, or see a side road you want to explore. I feel I wouldn’t be alive if I just stayed on my original route. So I adapt to what is happening. But I do this without losing the goal of where I am driving.”

Read the entire post below.