Archetypes are always [in my film-making]. It's sometimes interesting to just flip them a little bit and see the underside.

I was always, and I still am to a certain extent, one of those lazy people who spends a lot of time with Italian friends and yet constantly says I don't speak Italian. Things slow down when I start speaking Italian.

I think that a real film fan experience is about a kind of omnivorous experience.

If I'd been asked to play an Asian man [in Doctor Strange] I would've shown them Benedict Wong.

I always think of the word 'abandonment' when I think of the character.

I'm just really old [in Doctor Strange]. Just really, really old. There is I suppose a sort of theme tune which I'm really interested in.

The work is different in the sense that I haven't had to travel round the world raising money, or work from the genesis of the project. But the collaboration feels clear always, it's sort of my drug, I'm in it for the conversation. The conversation's the most important part of it.