When I do a mix tape for my kids, for my friends, for my lover, I meticulously choose the tracks, and it's beautiful. And when they are alone they think of me - and when I am alone I think of them.
It can be a machine. The machine tries to make money and forget about the heart and the art. Hollywood is more about making money.
I was born in 1963. So the '70s were my teenage years. As a teenager, I was into rock and roll - Bowie, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, even more progressive music like Genesis, and I was into a lot of British rock and roll. But I loved also American rock and roll. CCR, Jimmie Hendrix, The Doors, Patty Smith, and Bob Dylan.
I'm such a music geek, a music freak. I wake up in the morning, I press play.
I'm from the 'less is more' school. I had to be in the 'more is more' zone with 'Dallas Buyers Club', so I was out of my comfort zone, but I had to trust that.
In a career, when you hit 40 and you've done a lot of this and that, you want to try some new things. I feel like that as a director, too, from one film to the other.
When I see great film, I have this feeling of 'Oh, wow! Wasn't that great? Wasn't that good?' I want to do something. I want to scream and go out there and participate and embrace life.
I look back, and I've got a couple of films, and I'm happy.
I couldn't stand still at a desk for another year. I wanted to go out there and make films.
I'm always aiming for some magic in films if I can find a mystical quality either in a song or in a moment or a character's intention.
Trust the acting.
As a director, try to be humble and not to overdo it, not overcoverage and over-covering the scene.
Just film what's there, trust what came before, one hour before, and make it easy.
You've got to trust your instincts, your judgment and trust the storytelling that came before and the quality of the acting with the emotion.
There's a way of filming where you can get rid of the vanity and of trying to make something beautiful.
I love those films where I feel the director's confidence - where he doesn't need to overdo it with the shots and the cuts.
I respect the British a lot - their history, their past, their culture. I think it's beautiful, what they have with the monarchy.
I only made one film with a score, and I hate it. I hate the score of that film. It's not coming from me. I had nothing to do with it.
I like character-driven stuff that shows humanity and something that can make people think.
When you move handheld, and the director of photography has the courage to shoot with no lights, the set becomes a space of creativity and freedom where actors can move wherever they want to move.
