I've got Tom Hiddleston playing Henry V. I don't want to have a bowl haircut. I want him looking good so, you know, I want him in delicious kind of tight fitting leather jackets. [] I don't want him in tights, so he got nice leather trousers in mine.

I don't have a particular genre that I want to stick to; if you work on a small piece, you take that experience with you when you work on a big piece and vice versa. You will take those experiences with you and they will make the next one richer.

People grow and change and develop through their experiences, so ultimately you have to go with what's in the room - the feeling you get from them and what the camera picks up.

I ran the Gate in Notting Hill for a while, which is where Stephen Daldry started out. Those theaters are magical, because there's no money, so in a way there're no boundaries and it allows you to be inventive and brave and take risks and all those important things while you're starting out.

The camera kind of finds things that the naked eye can't even see. By moving in a certain way, you're already telling part of the story.

When you're casting, you have to do quite a bit of research. But I always think you have to do it with a pinch of salt with actors, because it's so unfair to pigeonhole them and so often they are. I try to be as open as possible and if people are really interested and really want to have a go, then let's get them in and see them.

I much prefer to work with dead writers, and ones who were writing four hundred years ago.