Actors enjoy being treated as ordinary people.

Actors enjoy being treated as ordinary people.

Well, I'm half Australian, half English and I live in London. That is the only reason I came upon this story. My Australian mother, Meredith Hooper, was invited in late 2007 by some Australian friends to make up a token Australian audience in a tiny fringe theater play reading of an unproduced, unrehearsed play called 'The King's Speech.

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

There's something about being cerebral, intellectual, and yet emotionally repressed [in being villain]. If you think someone's doing this [bad] stuff and they're in complete control, that's more scary than if they're out of control.

I decided to be a filmmaker when I was 12. I had utter clarity that this would be my life.

I think directors can become overly infatuated by gilt and gold, and the word "lavish" and everything being magnificent.