Looking at paintings was a huge part of finding my way into the lush world of the 18th century.

You work with each individual actor as you perceive their needs to be. It's something that you've figured out in the weeks of pre-production.

I've always been fascinated by the way that children and animals suffer stoically in a way that I don't think adults do.

Nobody is so weird others can't identify with them.

It is really hard when the actor you pictured can't do the film.

I am half-Jewish, and yet really hadn't been brought up within the Jewish faith. So I had felt culturally Jewish, if that's possible, without really understanding it.

In a way, after you're done directing there is a sense of amnesia that washes over you, you can't exactly remember how you did things. It's a zone, just like an athlete, when they can't remember what they did, but somehow got it done.