One of the things about Derek Jarman was that he was a painter who worked alone when he painted, but I firmly believe that one of the reasons he made films was for the company. He made filmmakers of all of us, that's the truth. I don't mean he necessarily made directors, but he made us filmmakers. Because we lived in a state of mutual responsibility for what we made.

Sexuality is, of course, a great way of having a conversation between people.

In The Deep End, you have a woman who looks like a J. Crew mother who can manage it all. Then we begin to realize what's going on inside. Every time I see one of those women stuck at a stoplight with the children in the back of her car, I sort of think, "What have you just done? What's going on in your life?".

I would say that I think the film [I am love] is absolutely about nature, it recommends human nature. You don't need to recommend change, that's inevitable, it's the only reliable thing we have.

George [Clooney] and I do have the aim one day to be in a film where we say one nice thing to each other. Hopefully one day.

I'm really interested in the idea of long, long life and transformation and immortality.

There's no need there to sit with the filmmaker for 11 years to develop the script, or go round the world raising money.