The delineation between the actor and his part is a practical matter. When the camera runs, you want the actor to be the character.

But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.

If a film or any piece of work doesn't entertain, it fails - and that is using the word entertain literally, meaning it holds you there and you become absorbed by it so that you don't walk away and get bored and so on.

Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins.

The way an actor is trained doesn't ultimately have much bearing on my work. I'm interested in the actor as artist.

Life is about luck and it's about circumstances and socioeconomic conditions and all the rest of it, but you know, you can also make choices. It's about spirit and generosity and all the other things, too.

What I do is to collaborate with each actor and work one-on-one to create a character. And that is a matter of huge complexity and is a combination of a great deal of discussion and a lot of practical work. It involves a lot of consideration for the real people out there, and all kinds of sources of real people. The result is the character. But I'm not supposed to talk about what it is we do, because it's nobody's business.