If you look at Shakespeare's history plays, what the setting of monarchy allows is this extraordinary intensification of emotions and predicament.

The more uncompromisingly specific you are the more you end up touching the bigger universal truths.

I'm the son of highly functioning parents who I'm incredibly lucky to have.

Sometimes your body language is enough for an actor to know that you're not happy. And you don't really need to say it out loud if you deal with actors you know very well. And I don't think you really need to be explicit.

I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures.

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.

American cinema tends to express a patriotic relationship to national identity on a regular basis.