John Badham

John Badham

Professor
Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Expertise: Directing; Working with Actors; Action Films;
Office Location: Marion Knott Studios DMAC 111
Phone: (714) 628-2798
Education:
Yale University, Bachelor of Arts
Yale University, Master of Fine Arts

Biography

Everyone should have a poster over their desk: "Character, character, character."  So says John Badham, who has directed more than 39 feature-length productions and many television shows over a career that has earned him Academy Award nominations, international box office success and helped launch John Travolta as a major star.

Whatever the story — he has directed everything from action films (Point of No Return, Blue Thunder) to comedies (Short Circuit, WarGames) to dramas (Whose Life Is It Anyway?, American Flyers) — Badham always keeps his focus on character.

The core of the director's job, he says, is to "get inside a character and understand." Thus he attributes much of the worldwide success and longevity of Saturday Night Fever to the fact that "I understood what was going on in those kids' hearts, even though I'd never been in Brooklyn — I grew up in Alabama."

"If you get the characters right, everything else falls into place," he says. From there, the challenge is to work with actors to make the story come to life. "Every actor has to be directed differently from every other actor," Badham advises. "You have to make the set a comfortable place to be where it's okay to fail."

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

‘I'll Be In My Trailer" Audio Book recording by John Badham.
"John Badham -Blick und Bewegung" Michael Flintrop (Hg.) Publisher , Fenomena Filmbücher
"Night Gallery-The Art of Darkness" Skelton & Benson. Publisher, Creature Features
'John Badham on Directing' 2d Edition; Michael Wiese Productions, September 2020, ISBN 9781615933167
2019 John Badham on Directing- 2d Edition
2019 Film Production Television Series Siren Episode 205 "Mommie and Me"
Directors Guild of America Retrospective -Saturday Night Fever
Stitchers TV Series Episode 307 "Just the Two of Us"
Television series; Supernatural episode 1304 "Into the Dark" Siren episode 105 "Famine at Sea" Siren Episode 204 "Oil and Water"
Director SuperNatural Television series "Asa Fox"
Director SuperNatural Television series "Regarding Dean"
STITCHERS Episode 1008 "Fire In The Hole" Director
SUPERNATURAL Episode 1015 "Things They Carried" Director
ARROW Episode 404 "HAUNTED" DIRECTOR
RUSH HOUR Episode 105 "Prisoner of Love" Director
Director Television Series: Supernatural- "Into the Mystic"
Director Television Series: Supernatural-"The Vessel"
Director Television Series: Supernatural- "We Happy Few"
CONSTANTINE Episode 106 "Danse Vaudou", Director
12 MONKEYS Episode 107 "The Keys", Director
"John Badham on Directing" Michael Wiese Productions ISBN 978-1-61593-5 (PBK.)
NIKITA Episode 303 "Innocence" Director
NIKITA Episode 318 "Broken Home", Director
NIKITA Episode 402 "Dead or Alive" Director
SUPERNATURAL Episode 911 "Raised Cain", Director
Director : Psych 3 episodes, Trauma 2 episodes, The Event, Las Vegas.2 episodes.

Faculty Directories by School or College