I understand that anything actors are doing, good or bad, is motivated by fear.

The cold-audition process is not a science, so I ignore that.

I don't have fights with actors. In absolute honesty, I've never fought with any actor ever.

All good, clean stories are melodrama, it's just the set of devices that determines how you show or hide it.

Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don't manage that - but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

Sydney in general is eclectic. You can be on that brilliant blue ocean walk in the morning and then within 20 minutes you can be in a completely vast suburban sprawl or an Italian or Asian suburb, and it's that mix of people, it's that melting pot of people that give it its vital personality.