I was interested in the mystical element of humor - was humor part of creation? Is God laughing at us, or with us?

I was 100 percent sure when I left university that I was going to be a painter.

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.

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.

I was interested in the mystical element of humor - was humor part of creation? Is God laughing at us, or with us?

In a way, a lot of my work is in the re-writing once it is cast, as I adapt to the rhythms of how the roles are played out by the actors.

As much as there are intellectual choices to be made and all the rest of it, a great actor has the ability really, to disappear and lose themself in a kind of mystical fashion. My appreciation and fascination with true acting is really all over the book, definitely.