I try to educate myself as much as possible, as I do with the director and the designers and everyone I used to work with. It just helps, I think, with the frame of reference for who you're working with.
I never say never, but I'm really enjoying the freedom I'm having right now.
It was really interesting to be editing the film [Trust] in New York and directing the play in Chicago, and one definitely informed the other. The play probably benefitted more because I realized what scenes could be cut, and I cut those scenes from the play.
At this age - I'm 44 - I think life's too short. I want it to mean something to me, if I'm going to spend that much time doing it.
Directing takes a lot longer than acting. This was about seven years in development, and then two and a half years with pre-production, production, post and now the release. Not that I have people banging on my door to star in movies, but it takes me out of the acting game for a longer chunk of time.
If I'm going to do something, I really put everything into it and I want it to mean something to me.
I had invited 50 or 60 peers and friends, most of whom were parents, to see the film [Trust], and I asked about the last scene. It was interesting because it was split right down the middle, 50/50. About half the audience wanted it to end with the very emotional scene between Clive and Liana, and that feeling of realization and catharsis. And, the other half were adamant about keeping that last scene.
I love helping someone else tell their story, but I like being the storyteller sometimes.
Our imagination often is more horrifying than being shown something.
I didn't want to be a victim of my own message [in Trust film]. I didn't want to take advantage of a 14-year-old actor. I didn't want there to be any nudity, or any real overt violence. I think it's more terrifying that there is no violence, in that moment. There's control and there's power, but there's no violence.
I think a huge amount of it is because of the Internet. Every single thing in the world is accessible with a few clicks. Almost every child, by the age of 13, has seen pornography. That's clearly different. It used to be really hard or really humiliating, as a 13-year-old, to access pornography. If you wanted to take a look at a Playboy, it was really challenging. Today, it's a joke.
When you see Liana [Liberato], who at the time was 14, there is an inexperience and innocence that you can't act and you can't fake.
There is a danger, if you cast someone who is 18, 19 or 20 to play 14 or 15, that very subtly, almost unconsciously, the audience is, "Oh, this isn't so bad."
I think it was really crucial that the actress was age appropriate. There are films, such as An Education, where that wasn't the case, and I think that really affects how you receive what you're watching.
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