{"id":11679,"date":"2026-09-01T05:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/01\/6-filmmakers-who-started-as-actors\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:03:54","slug":"6-filmmakers-who-started-as-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/01\/6-filmmakers-who-started-as-actors\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Filmmakers Who Started as Actors"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Sometimes, acting isn\u2019t enough to feel creative on a film set.<\/u><\/a> There is a need to have more control over how the story is captured and told. That has given us the following six filmmakers who were actors before they stepped into the director\u2019s chair.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

These actors-turned-directors starred in their own movies, preferred to stay behind the camera, and one even became the first woman to direct a noir. <\/p>\n

How many films by these directors have you watched? <\/p>\n

Ida Lupino <\/h2>\n

\"The \u2018Film 101\u2019 (2022)<\/small>Credit: Turner Classic Movies<\/small><\/p>\n

Lupino had a prolific acting career, and according to a retrospective article by The Guardian<\/u><\/a>, she joked that she was \u201cthe poor man\u2019s Bette Davis\u201d due to the roles she took. One notable role for Lupino was when she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart<\/u><\/a> in They Drive by Night <\/em><\/em>(1940) and gave a tour-de-force performance in the third act.<\/p>\n

She would become the first woman to direct a film noir<\/u><\/a> when she made The Hitch-Hiker<\/em><\/em> (1953), based on the real-life mass murders committed by Billy Cook. It was one of the low-budget films completed by the independent production company The Filmakers, which Lupino and her then-husband Collier Young had founded. <\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t stop acting as her directing credits grew, with several other feature films and a move into TV where she directed episodes for The Twilight Zone<\/em><\/u><\/em><\/a>,<\/em><\/em> The Fugitive<\/em><\/em>, and Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Clint Eastwood<\/h2>\n

You know him from the Westerns that made him an icon, and while Clint Eastwood<\/u><\/a>\u2019s acting career might have begun with an uncredited part in Revenge of the Creature<\/em><\/em> in 1955, he wouldn\u2019t remain unknown.<\/p>\n

\"Actress \u2018Play Misty for Me\u2019 (1971)<\/small>Credit: Universal Pictures<\/small><\/p>\n

He rose to prominence in the 1960s with the Spaghetti Western <\/u>Dollars<\/em><\/u><\/em> trilogy.<\/u><\/a> His directorial debut then came with the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me<\/em><\/em> in 1971, and he continued to direct until retiring after his final directing credit with Juror #2 <\/em><\/em>in 2024.<\/p>\n

Eastwood was interviewed for the book FilmCraft: Directing<\/em><\/u><\/em>, by Mike Goodridge<\/u><\/a>, and the actor-director looked back on experiences that left an impact on him. \u201cOver the years when I was an actor, I became interested in working with actors and found different atmospheres that I liked with different directors that made acting more compatible,\u201d Eastwood said. <\/p>\n

One of the best perspectives given by Eastwood is when he stated, \u201cA lifetime in movies is the same as a lifetime in any profession: you are constantly a student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Howard<\/h2>\n

Ron Howard<\/u><\/a>\u2019s directorial debut, Grand Theft Auto<\/em><\/em> (1977), would be the only time he acted in a project that he directed. Into the 1980s, he would make Splash<\/em><\/em> (1984), Cocoon<\/em><\/em> (1985), and Willow<\/em><\/em> (1988). He has directed such a wide range of beloved films and has been doing it for so long that you may not remember Howard started his career in acting. <\/p>\n

\"A \u2018The Andy Griffith Show\u2019 (1960)<\/small>Credit: CBS<\/small><\/p>\n

He was a child actor on the first seasons of The Twilight Zone<\/em><\/em> and Dennis the Menace<\/em><\/em>, before being cast in his most famous roles on The Andy Griffith Show<\/em><\/em> and Happy Days<\/em><\/em>. The experiences on those sitcoms<\/u><\/a> were essential in Howard\u2019s interest in becoming a director, with his observations of the work done by the crew on The Andy Griffith Show<\/em><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Howard looked back on his early career during an interview<\/u><\/a> with the radio talk show Fresh Air<\/em><\/em>. He liked seeing \u201c\u2014how the cinematographer lit the set. What lenses were chosen and why. And it didn\u2019t take me long to realize that the director was the person who got to, sort of, hang out and play with everybody, the actors on the one hand, the crew and the technical folks on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasi Lemmons<\/h2>\n

\"A \u2018Eve\u2019s Bayou\u2019 (1997)<\/small>Credit: Trimark Pictures<\/small><\/p>\n

Kasi Lemmons turned to directing because she wanted more interesting work than what she was getting as an actress. She played the best friend to the leading white women in two of her biggest movies, 1991\u2019s <\/u>The Silence of the Lambs<\/em><\/u><\/em><\/a> and 1992\u2019s Candyman<\/em><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lemmons explained in an interview<\/u><\/a> for The Believer that, after fifteen years as an actress, she made a change. She was able to get into the Writers Guild when she wrote a screenplay with playwrights Lee Hunkins and P.J. Gibson. Writing had been a passion of hers during childhood, and while that screenplay went unproduced, what she learned from the opportunity led her to write the script for what became her directorial debut, Eve\u2019s Bayou<\/em><\/em> (1997).<\/p>\n

Lemmons didn\u2019t intend to direct it, but the story became deeply personal, and she wanted to be the one to put it on-screen. She has gone on to direct films like Harriet<\/em><\/em> (2019) and has become part of the Graduate Film Department at New York University. <\/p>\n

Xavier Dolan<\/h2>\n

\"A \u2018Matthias and Maxime\u2019 (2019)<\/small>Credit: Les Films S\u00e9ville<\/small><\/p>\n

French-Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan<\/u><\/a> has created films on messy characters dealing with heartbreak, motherhood, friendship, and queerness. He started with 2009\u2019s I Killed My Mother<\/em><\/em>, when he was 19 years old (directing and starring in it), with his most recent film being 2019\u2019s Matthias & Maxime<\/em><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Before all of that, Dolan started as a child actor<\/u><\/a> in commercials, and loved watching the biggest pop culture movies and TV shows of the late \u201890s, like Titanic<\/em><\/u><\/em><\/a> and Charmed<\/em><\/em>. They were unlike the arthouse-focused films he would direct, but they did inform him of the importance of storytelling. <\/p>\n

Jordan Peele<\/h2>\n

\"Daniel \u2018Nope\u2019 (2022)<\/small>Credit: Universal Pictures<\/small><\/p>\n

Jordan Peele got his big break on MADtv and then became one half of the duo on the comedy sketch series Key & Peele<\/em><\/em> from 2012 to 2015. Yet, comedy wasn\u2019t quite what he wanted to do. \u201cI\u2019d wanted to be a director since 13,\u201d Peele said in a Deadline interview<\/u><\/a>, \u201cand horror and the suspense thriller were the most powerful genres to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

His debut, Get Out <\/em><\/u><\/em>(2017)<\/u><\/a>, balanced horror and comedy with social commentary, and the comedy became more subtle in his follow-ups, Us<\/em><\/em> (2019) and Nope<\/em><\/u><\/em> (2022).<\/u><\/a> If there is humor in a scene, it never dilutes the fear Peele wants you to feel in some of the most unforgettable, frightening imagery of modern horror.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know these filmmakers as actors first or as directors?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Author: Chris Sasaguay
\nThis article comes from No Film School<\/i> and can be read on the original site.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, acting isn\u2019t enough to feel creative on a film set. There is a need to have more control over how the story is captured…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[38,37,43,42,39,40,44,41,36],"class_list":["post-11679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-news","tag-editing","tag-film","tag-guide","tag-info","tag-news","tag-tips","tag-topics","tag-tricks","tag-video"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Brokenmount","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/author\/sysop\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Video and Film News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Sometimes, acting isn\u2019t enough to feel creative on a film set. There is a need to have more control over how the story is captured…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}