These Actors Pivoted To Video — AKA, They Turned To Directing

Welcome to the wonderful world of mutil-hyphenism, where actors can be actor-director-poet-sculptors or actor-dancer-cellist-politicians. The fact that filmmaking is a wide and expansive medium, one that requires all hands on deck for most of the process, is why actors have often expanded into other things. Plus, actors themselves have little to no agency, as Ellen Pompeo once pointed out on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

"Actors are, I guess, the highest paid on the totem pole, but the lowest in terms of power," she explained. She has herself directed episodes of Grey's Anatomy, something a lot of Rhimesian actors do in the latter seasons of their shows. (Tony Goldwyn directed a number of Scandal episodes.)

Thus, if you're an actor who wants some artistic control, you either produce, or you direct. Like, say, Bradley Cooper! Cooper is an actor best known for The Hangover. Okay, fine, he was also in American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. He recently took to directing for A Star Is Born, the Lady Gaga vehicle that is just going to slurp up all the awards come January. So did Jonah Hill. And Paul Dano. There are plenty more. For the purposes of this story, we're sticking to actors who directed feature-length movies, a feat that is significantly difficult to accomplish. Ahead, all the actors who pivoted to video.