story comes first always actors second
director third and and that is it's the
kind of fundamental rule for me which I
haven't always adhered to and when I
haven't I've paid the price it's
important that I kind of fall in love
with all the characters and that I want
to express the kind of beauty within
them all and by doing that the the way
one craft the film comes quite naturally
if that makes any sense I'm not really a
kind of theoretical filmmaker I work
very much from the heart
someone once gave me a really good piece
of advice which was that if there's a
script that you feel like you know
secret about then that's the one you
should do often I'll read a script and
think this is going to be great ah what
a wonderful film I would love to see
this film and I know that I would do a
very similar job directing it as ten
other directors so it's important that I
feel like I have a very specific point
of view on it or know a little secret
about it I can't sort of articulate it
any better than that
but I also kind of see it in my mind as
it happens you know as I read it and so
the first thing I do is look for that
really the thing I find most interesting
about films is is human interaction
that's why I love drama you know it's
about how people connect or don't
connect how my perception of a situation
might be different from your perception
and so making films is an exercise for
me in empathy and understanding people's
point of view something I'm not
particularly good at in real life and so
it helps
making films acting is not witchcraft
it's a craft and it entails in an
incredible amount of hard work and so I
only want to work with actors who who
are willing to put in the hard work you
know I feel like a lot of people yeah I
think that actually some kind of magic
you know and most of it 99% of it is
quite practical quite logical and and
and one can really talk about just get
to grips with it you know talk about
rhythm I think a lot about rhythm and
the musicality of a performance and then
there is a 1% magic but that magic won't
come unless all of that hard work has
been done beforehand
Tim Bevan that working title has had an
enormous impact and first of all because
he gave me my first film but also he has
an attitude to making films that is very
can do you know films don't languish in
development for years and you know you
find the right project and you get the
right people together and then you put
on a show and that is a very refreshing
attitude and you know you have a you
have a script and even if the script is
only kind of 80% there and you set a
start date to start shooting and maybe
in six or nine months and then you work
to get there rather than saying well you
know we need to get the script another
20% before we can set a start date it's
easy for things to kind of just run and
run like that and so so just spin up
setting deadlines and working towards
them is very useful my guilty pleasure
really is Judd Apatow films I love Judd
Apatow comedies and so and and also
I love blades of glory and and and films
like that so those films make me laugh
out loud but I think Kimura is important
in all films and I think humor is a part
of life and this therefore a film
doesn't have any humor then it isn't
really true to life and I think it's
very dangerous to ever take ourselves
too too seriously I don't necessarily
feel like I'm any better and as a
director now than I was when I was
making pride and I yeah I don't know
that I have any better I don't think
I've got any advice for myself or anyone
else really one of the things I tried
early on in my TV experience was to say
thank you before saying anything else I
was very very nervous when I started out
and my nervousness expressed itself in
an attempt to kind of control everything
when people came to me with ideas that
were different from my own alternative
ideas I would not be able to listen to
them really because I was scared of
losing control and my sister is a very
clever woman and said to me why don't
you try saying thank you
before thinking about their idea or you
know responding so I tried that and and
it did an amazing thing it kind of
completely dispelled the ego and meant
the Iowas then able to listen to the
person's idea or to consider the
person's idea and decide whether
I made the work better so although that
sounds like a really stupid and piece of
advice and if someone comes to you with
an idea that's different from yours say
thank you first
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