I never was that boy who loved gangster films, but when I was growing up, I was obsessed with the detective Dick Tracy. It was one of my favourite movies as a kid, and he really inspired me. I would have loved to be part of that golden age of Hollywood in the 1940s. It made me want to become an actor.

To watch a master work at anything is a privilege.

It was more important to me to understand what its like to be this Jewish kid who felt he was so different at such a young age. I feel the story is about a kid who came to hate through love, so I felt I had to learn why he loved this thing so much that he also apparently hated it.

I am pretty sick with myself! It seemed a pretty good idea at the time. Around the time I turned 30, I started to feel very creative, more creative than I had been before which is good and I like that.

In some way, the relationship between a director and an actor is personal.

I like working with actresses, and I like women a lot, not for obvious reasons, but just in that that theres so much about what they bring to the scene that keeps it so interesting. Their instincts are so different, and they never explain them to you.

It's sad, because he just doesn't have any ambition outside of loving his wife and his daughter — which should be enough but doesn't seem to be enough in this case.