Why are Woody Allen's meetings with actors so short?

Question

Penelope Cruz, Dianne Wiest and Matthew Goode--in addition to other actors--have all said that their meetings with Woody Allen have lasted less than a minute.

Why?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001848/bio

http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000002/#ni0548841 (scroll down)

Answer 1

I guess that's just the way he works, he's probably already seen a bunch of the movies the person was in, so he knows their work well.

It's like some dirctors like to take a lot of takes and some are happywith one or two.

Answer 2

A good director -- and Woody Allen is one of the best -- can ask or tell a good actor / actress -- and Dianne Weist is also one of the best --  a single instruction, question or statement and that is all that is needed for the two to be "on the same page" about how each is going to do their jobs on the project, the actor doing a good performance and at the same time achieving the director's vision for the role.

In a recent show, I was in a three-person scene in the opening act of Julius Caesar.  After watching us do the scene once, the director looked at the other two (Brutus and Cassius) and said "Need the information more" and then looked at me (Casca) and said "Withhold the information more" and that was all that was needed for there to be the necessary tension and interplay in that scene between us.  It did not take an hour and a half interview wth James Lipton and discovering what my favorite word was (schmutz, incidentally, is my favorite word -- as in "Hold still you've got some schmutz on your sweater." or "That glass isn't clean; there's schmutz in it.")