&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/50935?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Actors+who+turn+director%3A+what+drives+on-screen+talent+behind+the+camera%3AArticle%3A1645441&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Paddy+Considine%2CCharlie+Chaplin+%28Film%29%2COrson+Welles+%28Film%29%2CKevin+Costner%2CMel+Gibson+%28Film%29%2CJohn+Cassavetes+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Matt+Thomas&amp;c7=11-Oct-10&amp;c8=1645441&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2Fblog%2FFilm+blog&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Paddy Considine is the latest actor to turn film-maker, with his highly acclaimed Tyrannosaur. Who else has made the switch?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Best known for his performances in Shane Meadows-helmed films such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202559/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;A Room for Romeo Brass&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Dead Man&#039;s Shoes&lt;/a&gt;, Paddy Considine is swapping his acting career &ndash; which includes stints in Hollywood in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/aug/17/actionandadventure.mattdamon&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Bourne Ultimatum&lt;/a&gt; and Cinderella Man &ndash; for the director&#039;s chair. His film &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/09/tyrannosaur-paddy-considine-review?newsfeed=true&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tyrannosaur&lt;/a&gt;, which he wrote and directed, was released on 7 October. But Considine isn&#039;t the first actor to sign up for a spell behind the camera. What drives other performers to make the switch?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The egoists&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The need to take absolute control can be a powerful motivator. Charlie Chaplin began his film career working under the tutelage of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0784407/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mack Sennett&lt;/a&gt;, who laid down the essentials of slapstick comedy, and directors such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Normand&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mabel Normand&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0499883/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Henry Lehrman&lt;/a&gt;. But pretty soon he was writing scripts, directing and even composing the music for his own productions. David Thomson&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8176321/The-New-Biographical-Dictionary-of-Film-by-David-Thomson-review.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The New Biographical Dictionary of Film&lt;/a&gt; suggests Chaplin possessed &quot;an instinct [that] lacked artistic intelligence, real human sympathy and even humour. Chaplin&#039;s isolation barred him from working with anyone else.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s not hard to detect similar traits in Orson Welles&#039;s directorial persona. Troubled by his own perfectionism, he left behind a long list of unrealised works and an infamous blooper clip in which he combusts while trying to complete a voiceover for a poorly written and directed advert for frozen peas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The moguls&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the 1980s, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kevincostner.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Kevin Costner&lt;/a&gt; could do no wrong. As one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, thanks to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094812/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bull Durham&lt;/a&gt; and The Untouchables, it must have seemed natural for him to work that magic behind the camera as well. When his directorial debut &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/63rd_Academy_Awards&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Dances With Wolves scooped seven Oscars&lt;/a&gt;, including a best director gong, he seemed set. Sadly, the following $175m flop Waterworld and $80m turkey The Postman rather scotched that idea.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Propelled by a similar belief in his own genius, leavened with a scoop or two of unhinged ranting, fellow 80s icon &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/melgibson&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mel Gibson&lt;/a&gt; managed to pull off a number of coups in his rather more successful directing career. Although he&#039;s probably quite chuffed with the five Oscars awarded to Braveheart, he&#039;s probably prouder he completed feature films in Aramaic (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/96587/passion.of.the.christ&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Passion of the Christ&lt;/a&gt;) and Yucatec Maya (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/116577/apocalypto&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Apocalypto&lt;/a&gt;). Presumably he&#039;s nursing the desire to try classical Hebrew for a projected film about the Maccabee uprising. Good luck with that one, Mel.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The independents&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, mainstream films are not enough to satisfy the creative visions of their talent. Unfailingly iconoclastic in his own films, John Cassavetes acted in at least two iconic &ndash; for very different reasons &ndash; movies: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/22/rosemarys-baby-polanksi-horror&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Rosemary&#039;s Baby&lt;/a&gt; and The Dirty Dozen. Some people say Cassavetes only took on studio roles to finance his own directorial excursions. Either way, his reputation as America&#039;s first real indie film-maker is hard to ignore.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/feb/09/crispin-glover-interview&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Crispin Glover&lt;/a&gt; must have been inspired by Cassavetes&#039; work. The Charlie&#039;s Angels and Back to the Future star has ploughed an equally (if not even more) wayward furrow in his own career, writing and directing &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118141/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;What Is It?&lt;/a&gt;, a heady brew of nudity and racism, soundtracked by &lt;a href=&quot;http://mansonmusic.blogspot.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Charles Manson songs&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The game changers&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Playing Monica&#039;s schlubby multimillionaire suitor in Friends brought &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0269463/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Jon Favreau&lt;/a&gt; a certain amount of mainstream recognition after writing and starring in the cult retro film &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117802/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Swingers&lt;/a&gt;, but it was his directorial debut Made which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/29/jon-favreau-iron-man-2&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;really set him on the path to fame and fortune&lt;/a&gt;. A spiritual successor to Swingers, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227005/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Vince Vaughn-starring gangster movie&lt;/a&gt; allowed Favreau to lever his way into the big time. He&#039;s since &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/may/10/iron-man-2&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;turned a handsome profit with the Iron Man franchise&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; and reinvigorated Robert Downey Jr&#039;s career for the fourth or fifth time in the process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, it&#039;s possible to argue that Sling Blade saved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000671/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Billy Bob Thornton&lt;/a&gt;&#039;s career. Before the Arkansas-set drama was released, Thornton was slogging through roles in flicks such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103959/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Chopper Chicks in Zombietown&lt;/a&gt;. After his writing and directing debut he became &ndash; in the words of Robert Duvall &ndash; &quot;the hillbilly Orson Welles&quot;. Thanks to some adroit manoeuvring, Miramax was persuaded to pay $10m for the film&#039;s distribution rights, thereby changing the shape of the movie industry, as American indies became an extension of the studio system in both budgetary and aesthetic terms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The oddballs&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes there&#039;s no discernible reason for an actor to get behind the camera. Always a watchable actor, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/dennis-hopper&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Dennis Hopper&lt;/a&gt; overextended the freewheeling directorial style displayed in Easy Rider when he made &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2010/jan/07/dennis-hopper-life-in-pictures?intcmp=239#/?picture=357776532&amp;index=7&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Last Movie&lt;/a&gt;. Given $1m by studio heads baffled by the success of Easy Rider, Hopper turned in a film fuelled by copious amounts of cocaine and beer. It bombed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Slightly less dramatic, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_May&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Elaine May&lt;/a&gt;&#039;s film-directing career came about via the stage and screenwriting. While directing Cassavetes and Peter Falk in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074901/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mikey and Nicky&lt;/a&gt;, she annoyed her crew by shooting 1.4m feet of film &ndash; three times as much as Gone With the Wind. One scene ended with Falk and Cassavetes running off in different directions down an alleyway &ndash; May insisted that the cameras keep rolling, even after they left the set, since &quot;they might come back&quot;. She didn&#039;t direct for 12 years after that. Unfortunately her 1987 comeback film turned out to be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Ishtar&lt;/a&gt;, a film so execrable it wasn&#039;t given an American DVD release until January this year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/paddy-considine&quot;&gt;Paddy Considine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/charliechaplin&quot;&gt;Charlie Chaplin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/orsonwelles&quot;&gt;Orson Welles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/kevin-costner&quot;&gt;Kevin Costner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/melgibson&quot;&gt;Mel Gibson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/johncassavetes&quot;&gt;John Cassavetes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/matt-thomas&quot;&gt;Matt Thomas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;