I think the thumb print on the throat of many people is childhood trauma that goes unprocessed and unrecognized.

Trans stories have now entered the mainstream in this fantastic way, but the most important thing is what follows from that is hopefully a shift in the experience of trans people - so that there's more acceptance in the culture to the issues they face and more support.

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

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

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.

Actors are programmed to see the worst. If you're talking about an actor's TV series, you say, "I loved you last night." And they go, "What about the week before?" They immediately worry.

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