From Anna Kendrick to Dev Patel – how easy is it for actors to direct themselves?

An upsurge in directors starring in their own movies has seen mixed results. Lake Bell, Elia Suleiman and Viggo Mortensen explain the perks and pitfalls of being on both sides of the camera

Since the very first directorial cameos – George Méliès’ sorcerer-like appearances in The Vanishing Lady and Playing Cards in the 1890s – directors have often been unable to resist being in front of, as well as behind, the camera.” M Night Shyamalan, a film-maker notoriously eager to appear in his own work speaks for all these frustrated thespians: “It’s important for me to be a part of the film in some way […] I would love to play the lead role, but it’s physically impossible.”

An ever-growing league of multi-hyphenate actor-directors have, however, been proving Shyamalan wrong. Aside from the obvious heavyweights in 20th-century cinema who juggled on and off-camera personae (Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Warren Beatty, Laurence Olivier, Charlie Chaplin et al), the past decade has seen a staggering influx of actors deciding to direct – and often casting themselves as the main character – in their own films. Michael B Jordan went from squaring up inside the ring in Creed to escaping it (and of course getting back into it) eight years later in Creed III as actor-director, while Meg Ryan, after decades of starring in swoony romcoms, last year became pilot of the airport romcom What Happens Later. Greta Gerwig went from performing (and sometimes writing) indie comedies such as Frances Ha and Damsels in Distress to mainstream Hollywood with Barbie. Meanwhile, Anna Kendrick is centre stage in all senses in her dating show serial killer thriller mashup (aptly named) Woman of the Hour. And Dev Patel, hankering after roles with more ass kicking than he’d previously been permitted, wanted in on the action, literally, with Monkey Man. The list goes on.