““A good director is one that lets you improv,” that’s ridiculous. There’s some actors who should not be improving and there are some scripts that should not be touched. I think it’s just a case by case basis.”

I feel like it’s a skill that’s passable, but writing… writing is the worst. That’s what I’m doing right now, it’s just the hardest thing that you’ll ever do.

As a director you already have a script, you have actors… you have collaborators when you’re a director.

I almost feel like I didn’t pay enough dues, it was pretty incredible. I always thought I’d work with her, I just didn’t think it would happen at this point in my career.

When you’re writing there’s no one to collaborate with, there’s no material to look at. I haven’t adapted something yet, so, I’m sure that would be helpful. When you’re writing an original piece you have nothing.

For me, the hardest part is getting up and writing, that’s the hard part. I always felt like I could teach someone to direct if I really had to.

You know, you kinda think you’re gonna have to work for twenty years before you get to work with Meryl Streep. So getting to work with her…

Directors have a tendency to use their hands like orchestra conductors.

Actors aren’t stupid, mostly, and if there’s a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director’s going for, if you’re aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

I think the writer’s quite low down in the hierarchy really. But the fact that they took the piss out of Nicholas [Hynter] who, besides being the director, is also director of the National Theatre is, I’d have thought, slightly more risky.

Exodus is a very large organization. My board of directors is supportive of me as the president of Exodus and are very much involved in my decision-making and those types of things.

It’s really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

I have a final word of advice to our students. If you work very, very hard, this is the kind of actor, writer and director you may turn out to be, and if you work extra hard, this is the kind of person you may turn out to be.

A friend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followed through with it.

Really top-notch directors, I’ve often worked with them just to see how they work.