This is such a cliche, but I feel like filmmaking is a collaborative experience.

I love actors. I love working with actors. I really enjoy the process. I love having those in-depth discussions about the interior of their character, and actors really love to discuss that too.

In a huge way, everything that I've done in my life has helped inform my ability to communicate with actors and direct them.

I want to do something where the script is there. That doesn't mean that I won't need to come in, or be asked to come in, and help develop something. Things can always get better. There's always room for improvement. But, I want to do something that's the best version of whatever it's supposed to be.

I've been involved in burlesque for a really long time and I've always been really interested in burlesque, and I was writing musicals for different studios.

I've always had a love affair with New York City, and I've threatened to get an apartment there one day. But it just made sense for me to set 'Burlesque' on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It's a place I know intimately well and love, and I think there's a great story to be told with L.A.

I know that I've definitely found what I should be doing with my life. In my life, as far as my career goes, I always felt, as an actor, that it was something that would just be a temporary thing that would get me to what I wanted to do next. That's what my acting did. I really feel that I'm a much better director than I was an actor.