Coming from documentaries, my biggest challenge was to understand actors' psychologies. American actors take it all very seriously; British actors don't enter into all this methody way of doing things.
You can get good performances in quite sizable roles from people who have never been in front of a camera, people who maybe have never been in front of a movie theater.
In some ways, making documentaries is like being a journalist. You interview people and then use the bits you want to use as opposed to the bits they want you to use.
The only obligation you have as a film-maker is to tell your version of the truth and to use your film to illuminate reality. Whatever that means.
The relationship between director and subject can become very intense. It's a bit like therapy, with lots of transferences going on. It's easy to feel guilty.
It's obviously presumptuous in some ways to talk about somebody's sexuality who's not here to describe themselves.
When you're trying to make a film, you're trying to find a way to love your subject, and you want your audience to love your subject.
As a filmmaker, I'm interminably curious and nosy, but certain times you meet people and think, 'I don't want to push you too hard because I can see this is painful for you.'
I've done a few celebrity-related things, and I think on the first one - about Mick Jagger - I got stung and was not able to make the film I wanted to make.
For everybody in the world, the answers to the mysteries in your life usually lie in your childhood, your upbringing, and your parents.
The tradition has always been that in Roman films, the Romans are always British, and it's usually posh British: Laurence Olivier and his ilk. My take on all this was that it's a metaphor for empire and the end of empire.
People listen to The Beatles, but while they were muscially influential, they weren't culturally influential in quite the same way. You can go into the back of beyond in a little Indian village, and they will listen to Bob Marley. But they're not going to be listening to The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
The thing with newspapers is that they are a filter. We're relying on the editors of that paper to be a filter and to tell you that this is worth reading about, this is quality, and this is quite reliable.
When you're an outsider and going into a culture like America, it's easier to stay away from any cliches because you're not really aware of what they are.
Young people read their news online; they expect to get their news for free.
It is hard to find the soul of Mick Jagger. It is very hidden. I think his true personality has receded so far behind the facade that he can no longer find the real person himself.
Documentary makers use other people's lives as their raw material, and that is morally indefensible.
I did not want to depict Al Gashey as evil. I wanted him to come across as someone who did what he did for reasons that were compelling. Whether or not we agree with him is a different matter.
I think my brother always wanted to be a film producer.
I went through a period of not watching fiction.
