If you cast your supporting cast well, it should be seamless. You shouldn't even notice who's a big part and who's a small part. A good cast enriches everything.

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.

It takes such a particular amazing and extraordinary type of personality to become an actor. I love them. You can't do my job without them. I've worked with a lot of film actors and most of them are so, so prepared in their approach because they are used to turning up ready to shoot: you have to have your performance, you have to have your lines, you have to have everything pretty much decided and ready to go whenever everyone else is ready.

When Shakespeare doesn't feel like Shakespeare, it's the best.

If you cast your supporting cast well, it should be seamless. You shouldn't even notice who's a big part and who's a small part. A good cast enriches everything.

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.

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