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.

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

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

In "The King's Speech," patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September, 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.

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.

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