Playing dumb is sometimes the best thing you can do.
I don't think you need to play it in your case. But then again, I don't know what you're trying to say with this sentence. Only dumb people get the job or something? Whatever.
Maybe you won't make history as the sternest director out there, but then again, I don't want to make history.
Most directors didn't want to make history either but found themselves making history. John Woo and Tim Burton never even considered being movie directors in the first place but then suddenly found themselves making movies. They didn't want to just make movies though, they wanted to make more personal movies. The type of movies they would want to see if they weren't the director. Plenty of people still think this way today though and haven't made history or ranked as high as other big name directors, but plenty of movies like this do win at festivals.
I don't want to be Spielberg
You shouldn't want to be someone you're not anyway.
I want to be a director who can deliver and that might mean "O.K., maybe you don't want this in there. We can live without that. Can we put this in there instead, an equally deserving and quality part?"
Um... Even Spielberg thinks that way. No movie comes out exactly the way you envisioned it or wrote it out on paper. There are too many things that happen on set, whether they be misshaps or new sudden moments of brilliance that occurs, that keeps the movie from turning out the way you originally envisioned it. Alfred Hithcock said he saw his movies exactly the way they were in his head before he made them, but he was an extremely cocky guy, and most big name directors like Scorsese and Burton have commented on that quote and said there was no way that guy was being truthful. In fact, one of Hitchcock's films has one of the most noticable and hilarious continuity errors in history.
Also, Titanic is a film that went down in history but Cameron actually changed the original ending. They actually had it filmed and can actually be found on youtube. The original ending is god awful. It probably looked good on paper to him but it turned out horrendous.
Well that's not very nice of you mr. rolly eyes. Be considerate of what other people have to say if you really are rolling your eyes at them. Or maybe you just like making your sentences look a little cute with the smiley faces. Whatever, I'll drop it.
I would never sign onto a film without making sure they would let me utilize my vision. Sometimes your vision isn't the greatest and being open to change, well, I'm all open.
That's why you have a huge crew and cast to discuss it with while you make it. So many individual talents are involved in a movie. A movie is never really just one person's vision, its the costumer designer's, the set designer's, the actors', the editor's, etc, etc. The director is just there to approve everything and create the original idea for all other ideas to revolve around.