What has happened is that our critical senses have been numbed by the stuff that we've been seeing and the concept that more is better. We give awards not to the best direction but the the most direction. We give awards not to the best acting but to the most acting. People think that if they don't "see" the acting, there must be something wrong with it. The performances in Road to Nowhere are the best in any movie I've made, and that's because, in the casting process, I didn't look at performances. I didn't go onto YouTube to look at Shannyn Sossamon, for instance. What I looked for was people talking on talk shows or, if those were not available, I met with them in person. I didn't ask for readings or anything like that. I wanted to capture the essence of these people as people. It's not about acting; in fact it's about not acting, and it's kind of a revolution. I'm not the only one who's into this obviously. Again, there's an assumption that because these are people who have never been seen before, they can't be any good. And it's just the reverse-they're better than most familiar actors.
Monte Hellman, Cineaste Interview (Vol. XXXVII, No.3)
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