I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it's shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it's a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It's truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.

Actors enjoy being treated as ordinary people.

I find that after a screening, people really want to come and tell you what they feel.

Some of my most special shooting experiences have been at weekends.

I was always obsessed with finding truly researched images to add authenticity, out of that came something totally contemporary and modern. Research is very key to my process because over and over again, reality provides more interesting images than you could have invented.

Films about the English monarchy, they tend to have a lavishness, sumptuous imagery, it's all very posh and rich.

American movies are often very good at mining those great underlying myths that make films robustly travel across class, age, gender, culture.