It's amazing how the world does actually go on in the middle of things that should stop it for us.

I feel like I've always had two selves - the part of me that makes films and the part of me that's political, and they haven't really connected that much. Alias Grace talks about things like class and immigration and women's rights, which felt really good. But especially now, there are pressing things to be said. It's a really scary time in the world. It's a very scary thing to have an American president who openly brags about assaulting women and is openly racist. This isn't a moment to be speaking in metaphors.

I enjoy doing my more intimate and less commercial pictures and also I enjoy directing.

With being a mother, I feel like you choose how you spend your time so much more carefully - which is a good thing.

I think that the idea of family is a very powerful and influential and disjointed thing that will always captivate me.

So I decided to make a film about our need to tell stories, to own our stories, to understand them, and to have them heard.

Some of the funniest moments I've ever experienced have been in the midst of tragic situations in my life.