The way I see it, I belong to the film as any other department.

When I talk to [my kids], I remember my father talking to me, so it's understandable that I would make a film like "Aquarius." A very good friend of mine saw the film, and she said it was clear that it had been made by someone who had just become a father.

The reaction I got from Sônia [Braga] in less than 48 hours after I sent her the script [Aquarius] was so genuine that it left me stunned. Often when you show people scripts, you get polite, absent-minded reactions, as well as exclamations of "What the f - k is this?".

Today we find many actors, they are Latin, they are Hispanic, they are living in the Unites States, they are American, but very rarely you find them in a lead role.

Nobody who comes out of the movie [Aquarius] focuses on those [sexual] scenes, because they are not the heart of the film. They are a consequence of the story, but I don't remember hearing audiences talking about them afterward. They came out discussing themes of resistance, history and memory. They're talking about the beauty of the self and how it can become demolished.

When Sônia [Braga] talked about the script in detail, it was as if she had seen the film [Aquarius] last night, even though it hadn't existed yet. It was a completely bulls - t-less reaction, so I knew it had to be her, and she has been great ever since.

It's so sad to me [see the director's versions of films] because it shows how the filmmaker never got to make the film he had originally envisioned. You watch it and go, "Oh my god, he had to cut that scene! I can't believe it."