23 directors who have cast their significant others in their films

Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard have been together since 2002.

"I really have respect for him. It's such a pleasure to direct him." Gyllenhaal told People in December of directing him in "The Lost Daughter."

"Mostly, he was holding up the family side of things, and that is invaluable. I could not have made this film without that. There are so many examples of women gracefully, intelligently supporting their husbands and there are so few examples of men doing that for their wives. He's a really incredible example of that," she continued.

Pugh and Braff actually met on the set of Braff's short film "In the Time It Takes to Get There" in 2019, which Braff directed and Pugh starred in. They began dating soon after, and they are teaming up again for a feature film in 2022, "A Good Person."

"I am so lucky to know you. And the world is so lucky they get to witness your incredible talent," Braff wrote on Instagram for Pugh's birthday in January 2022.

Blunt and Krasinski began dating in 2008. A decade later, they worked on their first project together, the surprise smash hit "A Quiet Place," which Krasinski co-wrote, directed, and starred in alongside Blunt. 

"I saw very clearly what an incredible talent she was, and she moved me every single day," said Krasinski. Her agreeing to do the film was "the best compliment of my career," he said at a screening in 2018.

He returned to direct the sequel in 2021, even though — spoiler! — his character died in the first film.

"I mean, the truth is she's the greatest collaborator I've ever worked with," he told ET in 2021. "To actually be there when she's doing what she's doing, I was just blown away and in awe. So in the second movie it was no more nerves. It was just all celebration."

Bell and Shepard were married in 2013 after six years of dating. Shepard directed Bell in one film before they got married, 2012's "Hit and Run," and one after they tied the knot, 2017's "CHiPS." 

In 2017, Shepard said that Bell gets dibs on all his movies.

"She could have played Ponch [in 'CHiPS'], if she wanted. Because I did not write Karen for her. I was thinking I would cast someone who's kind of inherently unlikable and she decided she was going to play Karen and she did. And she's great," he told ET.

Working together is "just totally fun," he continued. "By the time we did 'Hit and Run,' it was far from our first time of me going, 'Oh, I think it's more fun when you do this...' Unlike me, she has no problem being directed," Shepard said. "I could've never made that movie without her."

To date, McDormand has been in "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona," "Miller's Crossing," "Fargo," "The Man Who Wasn't There," "Burn After Reading," "Hail, Caesar!," and "The Tragedy of Macbeth," all of which were either directed or co-directed by her husband.

The two have been married since 1984.

"We met on 'Blood Simple,' we met working together, we've always had a really, really successful working relationship, and I think that one of the things I believe both of us are the most proud of [is] not only have we collaborated as an actor and director for 38 years, we've collaborated as life partners for 38 years," McDormand told Deadline in 2021.

"We raised our son and have created an extraordinary kind of performance piece of a life together," she said.

McDowell and Collins, who tied the knot in September 2021, will release their first collaboration in 2022, a thriller called "Windfall" that Collins also produced.

"Honestly, it was so easy working together. I thought it would be harder, I have to say. I thought it would be more stressful to have to work with him, but it honestly was really amazing and freeing," Collins told Vogue Australia. "It was great, and I'm really, really proud of the movie and I'm proud of him."

Sudeikis and Wilde were together from 2011 to 2020. During that time, Wilde released her directorial debut, "Booksmart," which Sudeikis has a small role in as a high school principal moonlighting as an Uber driver.

"His entire relationship with me has been one long audition for 'Booksmart' and he nailed it," Wilde joked in 2019.

"There's still a shorthand that comes from being someone's closest partner, but I loved being able to just set him free because he's one of the best improvisers in the world," she continued.

Bonham Carter and Burton, who were together from 2001 to 2014, worked together quite frequently. Over their 13-year relationship, Burton directed her in "Planet of the Apes," "Big Fish," "Corpse Bride," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Sweeney Todd," "Alice in Wonderland," and "Dark Shadows."

"I really do have to be righter than right before Tim lets me do a part," Bonham Carter told The Guardian in 2008. "Sexual favors don't get me anything."

"There are certain stresses that come with working together," she continued. "There's no pretense with us, you see. No 'Let's adopt our formal selves.'"

Robbins and Sarandon were together from 1988 to 2009 after meeting on the set of "Bull Durham."

At the time, Robbins said casting Sarandon was a no-brainer. "She's the best actress working," he said on PBS.

Sarandon won a best actress Oscar for the role.

"To my partner in crime and in all things of the heart, the writer, the producer, the director, the spirit, Tim Robbins," she said when she won. "You kept us on track, you fought so hard. Thank God for your stubbornness, thank God for everything about you. We would not have anything without you. This is yours as much as mine. Thank God we live together."

Falcone and McCarthy have been married since 2005. After that, the two worked together as actors multiple times, most famously in "Bridesmaids." 

Falcone made his directorial debut in 2014 with "Tammy," starring McCarthy. He's directed four films since then ("The Boss," "Life of the Party," "Superintelligence," and "Thunder Force"), all of which star his wife.

"I think what people are missing is the fact that she's pretty, she's funny, she's smart. She also doesn't take s---. She's told all the time, 'You can't do this or that in the acting world.' But she says, 'Why not' and 'Yes and' all the time, which I think is a hallmark of crazy people but also people that are successful," Falcone told The New York Times in 2018.

Pitt and Jolie met on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" in 2005, but it took them a decade to work together again — though, instead of just co-starring, Jolie also directed Pitt in "By the Sea." She wrote the film, as well.

"It's surprising how much I enjoy the direction of my wife," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. "For this one, I operated on pure instinct. Angie and I have too much history and understanding of each other to question beyond there," he added.

The two split in 2016, just a year after the film was released. In 2017, Jolie said she thought the film would help their relationship.

"I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate. In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things. But there was a heaviness, probably, during that situation that carried on, and it wasn't because of the film," she told The Hollywood Reporter.

"I'm glad we did it because we did explore something together," she said. "Whatever it was, maybe it didn't solve certain things, but we did communicate something that needed to be communicated to each other."

Mann and Apatow have been married since 1997 — they actually met on the set of "The Cable Guy," which Apatow produced and Mann starred in.

Since then, Mann has appeared in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Drillbit Taylor," "Funny People," "This Is 40," and Apatow's short-lived (but beloved) '90s sitcom "Freaks and Geeks."

Their daughters, Maude and Iris, also appeared in "Knocked Up," "Funny People," and "This Is 40," as the daughters of Mann's characters.

"It's so nice to be able to have a say in things and Judd being open to collaborating because I'm very helpful in that area. And that's why working with him is so great, because I get to have a say in things where normally I wouldn't," Mann told Marie Claire in 2012.

Franco, who has been married to Brie since 2017, co-wrote and directed "The Rental," which stars his wife — though she wasn't always going to be the star.

In a 2020 conversation with her husband in Interview Magazine, Brie explained how she watched the entire process.

"The cool thing about this project is that I got to witness you working on it and watching it evolve, while not knowing that I was going to be involved. I found it so inspiring watching you write with Joe [Swanberg]. Every day, you would get home from writing, you'd be so excited and have all these new ideas," she said.

"It was very exciting when one day, you just turned to me in our living room, and you were like, 'Maybe you should play Michelle,'" Brie said.

Gunn and Holland have been together since 2015 and just announced their engagement. In 2021, Gunn cast Holland in "The Suicide Squad" — which he wrote and directed— as Harcourt, a supporting role. 

However, Harcourt became a much bigger part in the HBO Max series "Peacemaker," which began airing in 2021. Gunn wrote all eight episodes and directed five. It's also already been announced that Gunn will write and direct every episode of season two.

"It was great. We had an absolutely amazing time. At the end of it, our personal relationship was closer for the experience," Holland recently told People. "We got really lucky in that we work really well together and it just works for us."

Beatty and Keaton were the definition of an A-list couple back when they dated in the late '70s and early '80s, but their relationship ended shortly after "Reds" wrapped.

"Making a movie together if you've got someone who is even moderately obsessive-compulsive is hell on a relationship," Beatty told Vanity Fair decades later. 

Said Keaton in the same oral history, "I don't think we were much of a couple by the end of the movie. But we were never, ever to be taken seriously as one of the great romances. I adored him. I was mad for him. But this movie meant so much to him, it was really the passion of his professional life — it was the most important thing to Warren. Completely, absolutely. I understood that then, and I understand now, and I'm proud to have been part of it."

Bening and Beatty have been married since 1992 after they met on the set of "Bugsy" in 1991, but they didn't work together until Beatty directed "Rules Don't Apply" in 2016.

"She's the best actress I know of," said Beatty that year.

"I'm just so happy that he made the film," Bening told Yahoo Movies. "He got what was in his head and in his heart out on the screen. And to know that my children got to see him do what he does [as an] actor-writer-director-producer."

Esmail and Rossum appear to have met on the set of "The Comet" in 2013, two years before he created the smash hit "Mr. Robot." They got married four years later, in 2017.

However, the two haven't worked together since "The Comet."

"He's a force of nature. I would work for him in any capacity. Hopefully that will happen in the future," Rossum said in 2017.

Bennett and Wright have been together since January 2018, though they first bonded back in 2016, according to IndieWire.

It was in 2018, in fact, that Wright saw Bennett perform in the stage musical version of "Cyrano," which co-starred Peter Dinklage. The two reprised their roles for the film.

"It's an incredibly intimate experience," Bennett told IndieWire of working with Wright. "And intimacy is sometimes absolutely terrifying, because as human beings, we want to be impressive to our partners. It feels like working without skin in a lot of ways … like I'm walking around skinless."

Winslet and Mendes were married from 2003 to 2010, and they worked together on "Revolutionary Road," which reunited Winslet with her "Titanic" costar Leonardo DiCaprio.

"She's very warm with the crew, a very good company leader, and I found myself actually a bit in awe of that sometimes. I was just relieved that it was better than I had hoped, and that we didn't have any major rows," Mendes told Reuters in 2008.

For her part, Winslet was very excited to work with Mendes. "Wonderful actors like Tom Hanks would tell me that Sam was so great to work [with]," she told the Mirror in 2009.

"I'd be telling them to shut up because I was starting to get a bit jealous. I wanted to experience this side of him and when I did it was as if the final piece of a puzzle of who my husband really is slotted into place."

Tomlin and Wagner are one of Hollywood's longest-lasting relationships. They met in 1971 and have been together ever since, formally tying the knot in 2013.

Wagner and Tomlin have written many things together, but Wagner has only directed Tomlin in one film: the 1978 romantic drama "Moment by Moment."

"She expresses how I feel, which I have no ability to do," Tomlin said of Wagner in 2020. "She can express in words what I feel about the world, about humans, about the struggle that we're in — and, presumably, not the inevitability of it all, something that I know speaks to other people," she told Variety.

"When I got confidence, it was because of Lily, who believed in my work," said Wagner. "We loved similar things, and it was just kind of remarkable that we were on the same page, aesthetically. Her appreciation of my work meant all the difference to me. I saw her motivation. I saw her drive, and her strength taught me something."

Although the two have been together since 2001, Rudolph didn't appear in one of Anderson's films until 2014: "Inherent Vice." The comedy legend skipped out on "Phantom Thread," but teamed up with her partner for the 2022 best picture nominee "Licorice Pizza."

"It was essentially down to one of two parts," Anderson said of casting Rudolph in "Licorice Pizza." "I don't remember what the other might've been, but that was the one that I liked the most because there was a lot going on in her life and to ask her to do more than one or two days would have been too much."

Baumbach and Gerwig have been together since 2011, and they have collaborated many times since then. They co-wrote Baumbach's directorial efforts "Frances Ha" and "Mistress America," which Gerwig also starred in. She also appeared in Baumbach's film "Greenberg," and she has an uncredited role in "The Meyerowitz Stories."

In 2022, Gerwig will star in Baumbach's film "White Noise."

In 2019, both were nominated for Academy Awards: Gerwig for "Little Women" for best adapted screenplay and Baumbach for "Marriage Story" for best original screenplay. 

"The thing you want more than anything is for someone to just take care of you because shooting a movie is so much," Gerwig told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. "But because we're both doing it, we haven't necessarily always been able to be the person who was there. Sometimes it's not completely possible."

"I remember when I showed Noah cuts or drafts of 'Little Women.' He's my favorite filmmaker and my favorite writer. It means everything to me that he thinks it's good," she continued.

Bravo, best known for writing and directing "Zola," collaborated with then-husband Gelman of "Fleabag" and "Stranger Things" fame on the 2017 dark comedy "Lemon." The two were married from 2015 to 2018.

"A lot of the time I was following her lead, and it was really fun to do that and to be able to — you know, I was sort of the Scottie Pippen to her Michael Jordan," Gelman told The Black List Blog in 2017.

"I also trusted that if anything felt wonky that we were writing that it would eventually be changed, because I don't know anybody that is so self-critical as an artist as Janicza is," he continued.