Interestingly, I never thought Id do an adaptation. Ive also been quite against them. I think trying to translate one medium to another is wrong. I never really felt that books fitted into film. Generally people are disappointed, arent they?
Andrea ArnoldI'm never going back to the past. It is like when I am driving - I never like to do those routes that take you backwards and make you go the long way. I always like to do the shortcuts and go forward.
Andrea ArnoldI can't remember why or how I started writing, but I think it was always a way of making sense of the world.
Andrea ArnoldI personally love to see films not knowing very much about them. When you see it, it's like a flower opening up. I deliberately never read about films before I see them.
Andrea ArnoldI always think that if you look at anyone in detail, you will have empathy for them because you recognize them as a human being, no matter what they've done.
Andrea ArnoldI grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know.
Andrea ArnoldDramatically, I like darkness, I like conflict - but I don't see the world as defined by them.
Andrea ArnoldA lot of people have something to say about 'Wuthering Heights,' but nobody quite nails it.
Andrea ArnoldI wonder whether my bleak-o-meter is set differently from other people's. I have such passion for what I do that I can't see it as bleak. When people use that word, or โgrimโ or โgritty,โ I just think, โOh, come on, look a bit deeper.โ My films don't give you an easy ride. I can see that. The sense I get is that people have quite a physical experience with them. They feel afterwards that they've really been through something.
Andrea ArnoldI'm sure most of us remember being a kid and you have all of this endless time where two weeks before Christmas feels like ten years. I used to go to bed to try and go to sleep to try and make it go faster.
Andrea ArnoldWhen I was in New York I heard many people saying that the independent film industry was in big trouble. I was reflecting on this when I came home. Realizing that ever since I started filmmaking, people have being saying that. But somehow it keeps going. Filmmakers keep going. We need stories to make sense of the world and some people like me are driven to tell them. I have faith this will always be possible.
Andrea ArnoldAmerica is a huge country, of course. It's complicated. There's good, and there's not so good, and that's the same wherever you live.
Andrea ArnoldFor me, making films is about trying to work something out by myself in quite a lonely way. I find the whole thing very lonely really.
Andrea ArnoldI grew up with a lot of Hollywood films. Cozy farm houses, cowboys, nice flats in New York. Especially as a kid, those things have a huge impression on you.
Andrea Arnold